


Lupus Domesticus

by tonkzart



Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Consent is Sexy, F/M, First Time, Grief, Hand Jobs, Oral Sex, farming, i clearly do not know how tags work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2020-11-28 20:48:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 31,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20972819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tonkzart/pseuds/tonkzart
Summary: Scarlet and Wolf arrive home after months on the Rampion distributing antidotes, ready to settle into their new life together. They haven't had sex yet.





	1. Two Bras and a Prince

**Author's Note:**

> Used to be called Two Bras and a Prince Started It! Then I made it into a series and had to rename it! I always hated that title, anyway. Tbh this one is on thin fucking ice too.
> 
> A birthday present for my dear best friend Michelle, who told me when I read these books that if we wanted to read smut, I was going to have to write it. Well, I hope you're happy.
> 
> I WANT TO BE EXTREMELY CLEAR HERE: CONSENT IS NECESSARY AND FUCKING SEXY. Also this is the far future, they have cities on the moon and fully-operational cyborg prostheses, and I have to believe they give uterus owners contraceptive implants until they grow up and decide when they want them disabled. IT'S JUST SCIENCE. So basically there is no risk of Scarlet getting pregnant thank you bye

Scarlet dropped her bag, which had traveled with them from Luna to all corners of the Earth, on the floor and flopped facefirst onto the bed. “Finally,” she sighed, the quilt muffling her voice, but not enough to have any effect on Wolf’s advanced hearing.

Wolf hovered in the doorway. Determined as he was to follow Scarlet anywhere, the thought had hit him as he crossed the bedroom’s threshold that this was the space in which Scarlet had lived for ten years, that had made her into the woman she now was. It was enough to stop him in his tracks, his brain whirring with curiosity, reverence, but tempered by the conviction that he did not deserve this glimpse into Scarlet’s happy life. Before he’d arrived on the scene. The room’s scent did nothing to clear his mind, smelling like Scarlet but mixed with dust and a laundry soap whose familiarity had been replaced by the Rampion’s stock of detergent over the last half year. It was the smell of a Scarlet who lived with her grandmother, who had all her fingers, who had never kissed a monster - though it was being dispelled slowly as the current, real Scarlet’s scent gradually filled the space.

Scarlet flapped her hand at him, the only part of her body that had moved. Her fingers groped in the empty air for his missing presence, expecting to find him nearby. When she realized that Wolf wasn’t beside her, she lifted her upper body from the mattress and twisted to look at him.

“What?” Scarlet glanced up and down his still form in the doorway, her brow furrowed. Wolf couldn’t bring himself to say anything in explanation, unsure how to regain his bearings. She must have taken his hesitance for something like disgust, because after a beat her gaze drifted around the room at large and she muttered, “Oh, stars.” In one movement, she was off the bed and hurriedly collecting strewn items off the floor. Wolf shook himself into focus as she opened a door and threw an armful of clothes into what was apparently a closet.

“Scarlet, it’s fine,” was all he could think to say. Five minutes ago, they had been saying their farewells to Cress and Thorne, taking their leave of the Rampion, and Scarlet had been eager to return to the farmhouse. Now she was fretful and on edge in her long-missed home. Wolf was painfully reminded of the morning they’d left Rieux, her tension as they’d walked through the house, even as he’d tried to not look too closely, to not make Scarlet think he was judging their surroundings.

“I forgot I’d left it such a mess,” Scarlet was babbling, keeping herself turned away from Wolf as she bent down again and again to pick up a napkin, a cloth bag, a toppled stack of books. “Émilie cleaned downstairs, thank stars, but I told her not to worry about upstairs, obviously when I got up that morning I wasn’t expecting to leave it like this for months and months, and I didn’t _ imagine _ anyone would be with me to see this mess, especially not _ you _ \- ”

Wolf crossed the room to Scarlet as she stood up from her crouch; his light touch on her arm made her breath catch in surprise. Her eyes met his and for a long moment, Wolf let himself just wonder at their beauty.

“I didn’t even notice,” he assured her. Scarlet’s mouth spread into a sheepish grin and she idly twisted the object in her hands. Attention drawn by the movement, Wolf glanced down at it. It was a blue polka-dotted bra. Scarlet’s cheeks flamed as he jerked his gaze upward and, as if by reflex, she flicked the bra across the room. It caught perfectly on the chain pull of the ceiling fan and swung back and forth over the bed, its momentum turning it into a perfect pendulum.

Yet again Wolf tore his eyes from the undergarment, his ears blushing hotly, but it didn’t matter. Scarlet had buried her face in her hands with a groan.

“Well, that’s embarrassing,” she moaned. “‘Welcome to my home, which I want you to think of as _ your _ home, can I interest you in any flying lingerie?’ Is it too late to call the Rampion back? I need Thorne to drop me off at the nearest vacuum of space.”

Wolf chuckled at Scarlet’s embarrassment, a bit relieved that he wasn’t the only one feeling awkward. “We can start over,” he offered. Coaxing her hands from her face, he drew Scarlet to the window, overlooking the back lawn and part of the fields beyond, and positioned her in front of him to get the best vantage point. “Welcome home, Scarlet,” he murmured, watching her face in the golden evening light as she took in what must have been a familiar view. Scarlet drew his hands, still holding hers, around her shoulders so that he draped over her back like a blanket. Wolf couldn’t help himself from brushing a kiss on her cheek, even if he had to bend himself almost in half to do it.

“Thanks.” Scarlet nuzzled his face with hers. “Though I’m pretty sure I should be the one doing the welcoming. I really missed it here.”

“I know,” Wolf replied. Her hair was tickling his neck, but he’d be content to never move a muscle again. Scarlet clearly had other ideas, though, releasing his hands and stepping out from his embrace. Feeling bereft, he turned and watched her climb onto the bed again, standing up to disentangle the dangling bra from the chain. His mouth twitched into a grin at the sight, and Scarlet, watching him, laughed.

“I don’t even know why I’m so embarrassed,” Scarlet chuckled, gesturing at the knot of fabric and metal with her free hand. “It’s just a basic bra. Not a new sight.”

“It’s a first for me.” The words were out of Wolf’s mouth before his brain caught up with them. He blushed so immediately and so deeply that it felt as if he’d leapt into an active volcano. Why did he say that? But what else should he have said? This was the second time since they’d gotten home that he’d made the atmosphere awkward. This never happened on the Rampion, they’d had Cress and Thorne to smooth any conversational bumps, and when he and Scarlet were alone, they… well, a lot of the time they weren’t using their mouths for conversation. Of course, they never felt comfortable making _ too _ much “not conversation,” especially on an echoing, amplifying metal ship in the room right next door to their companions. The rest of the time, distributing the letumosis antidote kept them so active that they fell right to sleep once they got back to the ship… which was how Wolf had ended up in this paralyzing moment of never having seen Scarlet’s underclothes in the first place.

The initial horror of his embarrassment having passed, Wolf refocused on Scarlet. She had freed the bra but was still standing tall on the bed, looking inscrutably at him. He couldn’t help but register her heartbeat, louder and quicker than it had been a moment ago.

“I can show you a better one,” she said.

Scarlet had flirted with Wolf before. She had been doing it since the day he met her. He knew what it sounded like when she was being coy. This tone of voice was dead serious, no sauciness in it. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Wolf’s neck.

“Scarlet - ”

She gripped the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head, only breaking eye contact when the fabric was covering her eyes. Wolf had never seen so much smooth, freckled skin in his life. He knew it was impolite to stare, but he could never help it when it came to Scarlet. His brain seemed to be stalling like an overloaded engine.

“I should clarify,” Scarlet was saying, dropping her shirt on the floor she had just cleared. “It’s not cute or anything but… it’s on me.”

The bra was plain white. It was breathtaking. She was in it.

Wolf was on her in a stride, pressing his mouth to her ribs, tasting the bared skin for the first time. Scarlet took in a low gasp, her hand coming to rest in his hair. “I can’t believe that line worked,” she breathed, her smile audible as she spoke. A pink flush was spreading down her neck and chest; Wolf tilted his head up so his lips could meet it. Her blushing skin was hot under his kiss.

“Scarlet, I’m in love with you,” he rumbled, kissing along her collarbones. “Anything you say or do to me _ works _.”

Scarlet’s hands came to rest on either side of his neck and he felt the pressure of her thumbs under his jaw, urging him upward. He raised his head to meet her kiss, the sensation of her lips on his filling him with relief, with joy. She kissed him slowly, stepping closer to him. The mattress dipped under her feet, but Wolf held her close to his chest, keeping her upright.

“Wolf,” Scarlet whispered between kisses, “can I - ?” Her arms reached between them to gently tug at the front of his shirt, but she didn’t proceed any further. Wolf knew she was waiting for his consent to take it off, and it warmed his heart and alarmed him at the same time. Wolf figured Scarlet liked his scars, if her habit of tracing them during intimate moments was anything to go by, but… the modifications had made him wary. Would she like what she saw?

_ Let her decide that _. His mind quieted. He trusted Scarlet more than anyone else in the worlds. Looking her in the eyes, he nodded. “Yes.”

Scarlet bunched his shirt in her hands as she raised it off his body, and Wolf lifted his arms to make it easier, his heart pounding. Passing over his head, the shirt rumpled his hair, but Wolf wasn’t about to attempt to fix it. He was too busy watching the woman who held his heart in her hands.

Scarlet’s eyes couldn’t seem to settle; they roved over his chest, his shoulders, his sides. The trail of hair down the middle of his body. Wolf felt her gaze like it was a lit match passing over his torso. She wasn’t cringing away, which was a good sign.

After what felt like hours, Scarlet’s hand reached out, but before it could make contact with Wolf’s skin, her eyes met his once more. When he didn’t show any sign of hesitation, she touched the hair on his chest, a few inches north of his heart. She shook her head and let out a breath. “How do you not know how beautiful you are?” she asked. Wolf had no idea how to answer, casting his eyes to the floor, unsure if he could stand the intensity of her eyes while she said such kind things.

“Wolf,” Scarlet sighed, not giving him more than a moment of respite. Her forefinger and thumb cupped his chin and he didn’t fight her tipping his face up again, for which he was rewarded with another kiss. “You _ are _ beautiful,” Scarlet insisted, moving her hand to cup his cheek. “I can’t stand that you’ve been made to feel like you aren’t. You know, your smile is my favorite sight in the world?” The corner of Wolf’s mouth quirked up as if her mentioning his smile summoned one. Scarlet’s own face lit up at the sight. “See, that’s not fair.”

She leaned in to kiss him again. The heat from her body on his, unimpeded by clothes for the first time, had Wolf’s head spinning, and to his dismay, but not surprise, his cock twitching. It certainly wasn’t the first time his body had reacted to Scarlet, but he always did his best to divert her attention from it, when it happened with her nearby. He had no interest in being anything less than a gentleman with her, and they had never even broached the topic of… handling that together. Their lives together, over their entire relationship, had been far too busy, what with saving two worlds, curing an epidemic, learning each other, to think about it… until now. Now he was thinking about it a lot.

Scarlet’s hands were on his biceps, his own arms having wound around her back again, clasping her to him. Wolf was glad she was standing above him, if only so she wouldn’t feel his erection, somewhere around the level of her shins. As he thought this, though, Scarlet began trailing her hands along his arms, fingertips grazing his skin and raising goosebumps in their wake. When she reached his hands, behind her own back, she took hold of his wrists and started to pull them upward, ever so slowly, never breaking their kiss. Wolf felt the fabric of her bra’s band and his dick, as surprised as his mind was, stood to attention. Was she - ?

With a gasp, Scarlet broke away from him, looking over his shoulder. Wolf stood stunned for a half second, dread washing over the haze that her kisses had put him under. Had she noticed the evidence of his excitement? No, she couldn’t have, if she’d brushed against his dick he probably would have died on the spot - 

“Um, just let me…” Scarlet was clambering down from the bed and crossing to the bedroom door. Before Wolf could be carried away with thoughts of her leaving, fleeing the scene, she reached the wall next to the door, where the light switch protruded from the wall. She reached out to take hold of some sort of decoration Wolf hadn’t noticed and pulled it off the wall, trailing pieces of tape. Scarlet looked back at him and waved it - a piece of printed cardboard - at him. “I don’t think I should let my best friend’s boyfriend watch you take my clothes off,” she explained, scrunching up her nose to show that she was making a joke.

Wolf looked closer. It was the picture of Kai that Scarlet had told him had been cut from a cereal box.

He had no idea what his face must have looked like, but Scarlet burst out laughing at the sight of his expression.

“I thought you said you had that when you were fifteen,” Wolf reminded her, trying not to let irrational jealousy into his mind. Scarlet didn’t know Wolf existed when she was fifteen, of course she had crushes.

“I did,” Scarlet confirmed. “I took it down when I realized it was kind of creepy to be stared at by a pint-sized prince while I slept. Which was like six weeks after I put it up.” Her laughs tapered off and she plucked absently at the ribbons of tape sticking to her hands. “I thought it would be a funny joke; I asked Émilie to dig it out and put it up for when we got home. I completely forgot about it. Until I saw it just now…” She let out one last mirthless laugh. “I see it wasn’t very funny. I’m sorry. I ruined it, didn’t I?”

“Ruined it? It looks fine,” Wolf replied, befuddled.

Scarlet threw the cutout though the still-open door into the hall impatiently. “Not this thing,” she clarified. “I ruined the moment. I really didn’t want Kai looking at me topless, though.”

“Yeah, I don’t either,” Wolf conceded. Scarlet’s lips quirked up in amusement. Wolf cast about in his brain for anything to steer the conversation in a new direction, but before anything could come to him, Scarlet cast her eyes downward, probably trying to gather her thoughts like Wolf was. And her gaze landed on his pants.

Wolf fought the urge to turn away, to cover himself - what would be the point? She’d already seen. Scarlet wasn’t reacting, though, and it was playing havoc with his mind. She was half the room away, and yet seemingly miles and miles from where he wanted her, by his side. Wolf made himself take a step back.

“Scarlet,” he began, “we don’t have to do anything. This is - well, it’s not _ nothing _, but you can just forget about it, and I’ll - ”

“What?” Scarlet interrupted. “You’ll do what?” She looked back up at his face, and he couldn’t decipher the look in her eyes. He felt like he did in the very beginning, when he was trying to figure out the captivating girl he found himself orbiting, praying not to be shut out. “What do you usually do when you… get like this?”

“Um.” He cleared his throat. “Leave the room… wait for it to go away.”

“You’re not doing that today,” Scarlet declared. Wolf couldn’t even think about that determination right now or his brain might explode. He let the words pass through him, unwilling to be distracted from this conversation. “But you don’t… take care of yourself?” Scarlet asked, her head tilting in curiosity.

Were they really having this discussion? “No,” Wolf confessed. “We learned never to do it. Not by the thaumaturges, just… in the barracks. It was seen as giving in to human weakness and anyone caught doing it was… hazed, I suppose would be the term. Cruelly. Besides, what would I have had to become aroused by?” He hunched his shoulders, half a shrug, half giving in to his discomfort remembering his past.

Scarlet began moving at last, advancing on him until she was within an armspan’s distance. “Aren’t you going to ask me?” she questioned.

“Ask you what?” Wolf studied her, relieved that she didn’t press any further about his life as a soldier but unsure of the direction she was heading.

“Whether I take care of myself.” Reaching out, Scarlet took his hand and brought it to her lips, dark against her pale skin, sharp nails trimmed and filed down to make him feel more human. “I do, you know,” she whispered.

Wolf’s focus zeroed in on her lips as she stepped closer, still holding his hand, cradling it against her bare stomach. “You do?” he breathed. “You have?”

Scarlet nodded. “When you leave,” she explained. “Which you apparently do to sit by yourself and _ not _ think about me,” she added, an indignant tone creeping into her voice.

Wolf could read between the lines of her statement. “You think about me?”

Scarlet let go of his hand, only to reach up and none-too-gently sandwich his face between her hands. “Who else would I be thinking about?” she asked incredulously. Before Wolf could come up with a clever retort, Scarlet, as she so often did, found a way to distract him. In this moment, she did it by taking just one more step forward.

Wolf’s length came into contact with her stomach and he let out a shuddering breath. Scarlet’s hands gentled and she slid them downward to rest on the sides of his neck. “Are we done with the interview portion of the evening?” she asked softly. “Because I believe we were somewhere around the region of unhooking my bra.”

She reached behind herself, but Wolf shot out a hand to stop her, placing it over the band of her bra so she couldn’t get to the hooks. Scarlet shot him a confused look and he held out his free hand in a placating gesture. “Hold on. Scarlet, we really don’t have to do this tonight. I could never forgive myself if you agreed to something you didn’t want to do… just for me.”

Scarlet let her hands fall to her sides, but raised one to display two fingers between their bodies. “Two things,” she began. “One: have you ever seen me do something I didn’t want to do?” Wolf fought the urge to roll his eyes at her stubbornness, but she did have a point.

“No.”

“Of course not. And two: do you remember the first night we spent together?”

How could Wolf forget? The train into Paris. The open car door, Scarlet’s hair wafting in the breeze… the feeling of her lips on his for the first time. It was a memory indelibly etched into his mind.

He nodded. “As a matter of fact, I do.”

“Good. So you remember the fact that I threw myself at you practically the first moment I had a chance to?”

Wolf ducked his head, letting out a chuckle. “And I tried to stop you and would have missed out on one of the best nights of my life if you’d listened to me. I get your point.”

“You do?” Scarlet shot a cheeky grin up at him. “Great. So we’re all clear that I really, really want this? And that _ you _ really, really want this?” She pressed just a fraction of an inch closer to his body, but the effect on Wolf’s cock was unbelievable. He shuddered and weaved his free hand into Scarlet’s curls. The grin on her face turned wicked.

“Stars, Scarlet,” Wolf breathed. “I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want you.”

Scarlet laid a hand once more over Wolf’s heart, her eyes large and shining. “You have me,” she promised. “Now would you take this damn bra off?”

Wolf spun Scarlet around - “Give me a break, I’ve never touched one of these” - and unfastened the garment. Scarlet let it fall from her arms and turned to face him again, shaking her hair back in a gesture of confidence. Wolf couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Her breasts were perfectly round, adorned with small pale stretch marks, the nipples pink and peaked. Overwhelmed, he bent to kiss Scarlet’s mouth and wrapped his arms around her. She responded eagerly, draping her forearms over his shoulders as if to put him in a headlock.

The only problem with their height difference, Wolf thought - perfect for shielding her from danger, for fitting around her as they slept - was that it made kissing Scarlet so awkward. He placed his hands on her hips and lifted her up, setting her on the bed. Scarlet leaned in to him as he pulled away, giving him a forlorn look as they separated, but it only lasted for as long as it took Wolf to sink to his knees, putting them at eye level with each other.

Wolf moved in to her space again, placing his hand on a perfect breast. He kissed Scarlet’s forehead, her cheek, her nose, getting accustomed to the soft weight in his hand; she sighed happily as he explored. Kissing a line along her jaw, down her neck, he ran his thumb over her nipple, making Scarlet gasp. “Wolf,” she sighed, spurring him on. Giving the breast his full attention, he pressed his lips to the smooth skin, feeling her heartbeat underneath it.

As Wolf’s mouth descended on her pointed nipple, Scarlet wove her fingers into his hair. “Amazing,” she sighed. “You’re amazing.” Wolf grazed the underside of her breast with his teeth, eliciting another gasp from his love. He began fondling the other breast, but his attention was suddenly divided. Scarlet smelled… more. As if he’d somehow bottled the scent she gave off and splashed it all over the room.

With a heady rush, he realized that she was aroused. He’d noticed her smell spreading since they’d entered the room, but being this close to her, to… the source… was setting his senses on fire.

“Scarlet,” he groaned hoarsely. He set his hands on the waistband of her pants and leveled his gaze at her face. Her eyes were dilated and her cheeks were the wonderful pink he always loved to see, knowing that he was the cause of her blush. He couldn’t admire it much in this moment, though, his focus elsewhere. “Can I?”

Scarlet nodded.

Wolf set about untying the rope that served as Scarlet’s belt; while she had been eating three square meals aboard the Rampion, the ship’s stores weren’t exactly fattening, and she still hadn’t gained back all the weight she’d lost in captivity. She’d been cinching her standard-issue American Republic cargo pants with rope their whole time on board.

Unbuttoning her pants was easier, but Wolf managed to make the task a slow process. He savored pulling the zipper down, Scarlet running her fingers through his hair. Getting a glimpse of her underwear past the open fly, Wolf rose from his knees, taking Scarlet’s hands to help her up with him.

He settled his hands at her hips again, the question in his eyes. Scarlet, looking at him with unshaken trust, nodded. “Go ahead.”

Wolf kissed her on the lips one more time, unable to resist. Hooking his thumbs into the layers of fabric, he pulled Scarlet’s underwear off along with her pants. Scarlet balanced against him as she stepped out of them. Her scent was stronger than ever now, and Wolf nearly fell to his knees again to wrap himself around her.

“Whoa!” Scarlet fell back onto the bed with a laugh which quickly turned into a moan as Wolf gently but firmly pulled her legs apart and pressed a kiss to her inner thigh. Scarlet’s opening was before him, as breathtaking as the rest of her body. Wolf grinned to see that the soft pink lips clashed magnificently with the red hair atop them, just like her blushing face.

Wolf sniffed deeply, Scarlet’s scent surrounding him. He kissed her left thigh again, scraping at it gently with his teeth, and noticed her legs were trembling. He looked up to her face, placing a hand on each leg in a bid to calm them.

“What is it?”

Scarlet had propped herself up on her elbows, and Wolf thought there may have been no better sight on Earth than from the angle he was taking in her naked body. “What are you doing down there?”

Wolf attempted a rakish grin, but only succeeded at giving her a truly happy smile, unable to suppress his emotions. “Do you trust me?”

Scarlet cocked her head, her curls swaying. “Of course.”

Without another word, Wolf ducked his head and met her lower lips in a careful kiss. Scarlet swore loudly and her trembling only increased. Intoxicated by the taste of her, Wolf reverently pressed his mouth to her pussy, stretching his tongue into her opening. Scarlet was moaning above him, but he couldn’t let himself get distracted. With his fangs in her most sensitive area, a wrong move would mean pain and danger. Determined to stay alert, Wolf took his time exploring her vagina. He was beyond aware of his throbbing erection, but he was consumed with the need to make this experience as good for her as it was possible to be. Disappointing Scarlet was not an option.

Her legs pressed in on his head, the soft hair on them adding another sensation to the mix assaulting his senses. Wolf took hold of the leg on his left and shifted it, curling it over his shoulder where it could press into his back and maybe not suffocate him. Scarlet let out a cry. “Oh! Wolf, right there! Don’t you dare stop!” One of her hands appeared in front of him, reaching for her clit. Wolf watched her move, still licking into her. Scarlet’s walls began to flutter around his tongue. Driven nearly out of his mind, Wolf nudged her hand away from its work and began tracing circles around her clit himself. Scarlet’s breath stuttered and heaved, making the words she was trying to get out impossible to understand.

In a rush, Scarlet’s walls clenched and she came with one last sob of his name. Warm liquid filled Wolf’s mouth, and he swallowed eagerly. He lapped at her opening until Scarlet had come down from her orgasm, drunk on the knowledge that he had made it happen. Her leg slid from his back, her foot landing on the floor with a thud. Wolf raised his head at last, gazing along Scarlet’s prone body to where her face shone radiant red, her chest still rising and falling with labored breaths.

“Are you…” she panted, “trying… to kill me? Aces and spades…”

Wolf rose to his feet only to lie down on the bed next to her, content to watch her recover. “Was that good?” he couldn’t resist asking.

“Good?!” Scarlet rolled over enough to smack him lightly on the chest. “Just thinking about you is never going to cut it for me again. Stars, you’re a mess…” She lifted her top half over his body to kiss him soundly. She hummed upon tasting herself on his lips. Wolf’s cock responded to the feeling of her lips on his, becoming more insistent with every kiss.

It was as if Scarlet could read his mind, because she reached down to give it a curious pet, as bold as if she’d done it a thousand times before. Wolf nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Scarlet,” he warned, not wanting her to think he was expecting anything like what he’d just done to her.

“What?” she retorted, pulling away and leveling her eyes at him. “Are you going to tell me not to have sex with you? Because that’s what I was planning on doing now. Of course,” she was careful to add, “if you’ve changed your mind, that’s not a problem. I can wait.”

“I can’t,” Wolf blurted. Scarlet beamed. “Are you sure you’re ready? I don’t want to overdo it.”

“Well, then maybe you shouldn’t have eaten me out so well.”

Wolf felt his face flame from chin to hairline. Scarlet took advantage of their equal height on the bed to rain kisses on his forehead.

“I’ll be fine. Up you get,” Scarlet instructed, pulling Wolf to a standing position again. She tapped the button of his pants and, at Wolf’s nod, undid his fly. His pants fell to the floor, joining Scarlet’s in a pile. Scarlet took a deep breath and pushed down on his underwear, watching his cock spring to life as it was released.

Wolf had barely stepped out of his underwear when Scarlet wrapped a hand around him. He yelped out loud, and Scarlet suppressed a giggle. She pressed a kiss to his chest, the highest she could reach. Wolf could feel the missing joint of her pinky as she started to stroke him.

He felt dizzy with want. Grasping Scarlet’s wrist, he stopped her movement, though his dick lamented the loss. “This is going to be over before it starts if you keep that up,” he explained, bending down to kiss her. Scarlet hummed into his mouth, wrapping her arms around his neck, and Wolf used the leverage to hoist her up, laying her down against the pillows at the head of the bed.

“Scarlet,” he murmured, breaking apart from her. She had spread her legs, ready and welcoming.

“I’ll stop you if it starts to hurt,” she promised. Wolf grinned at her.

“I trust you,” he replied. Scarlet, impatient as ever, took hold of his penis again, lining him up with her wet entrance. Wolf began to press in, watching her lips spread for him. It was almost too much for him to stand, and he looked up to watch Scarlet’s face instead. Her brow was furrowed, but her eyes were clear as she shared the moment with him. He watched for any sign of pain, any change in her expression, but she never spoke up to stop him. Her breathing became heavier as he got closer to his full length.

“It’s so good,” Scarlet panted. “You’re so good, Wolf.”

Wolf’s slow pace jolted, the last inch of his cock bottoming out in her. Scarlet moaned.

“Give me a minute,” she requested, and Wolf didn’t dare move. He shifted enough to rest his forehead on hers, ever so lightly, but his hips stayed where they were. Scarlet adjusted, her inner walls arranging themselves around him. It was sweet torture until Scarlet moved one of her legs and her expression cleared. “I’m good,” she declared.

Wolf pulled his hips back, still slowly, trying to give her body time to adapt. When he pushed back in, Scarlet snapped her hips to meet his, drawing out a groan from him. Without speaking, he knew that she wanted more. Their pace sped up until Scarlet was talking again, swearing and uttering Wolf’s name and exclamations of love. Wolf snaked a hand between them, applying pressure to her clit as he had before. Scarlet’s voice rose in pitch.

“Wolf! Oh, stars, I can’t - you’re perfect, it's so much, I can't stop - ”

Wolf planted clumsy kisses on her brow, her cheeks, her mouth, swallowing her words. “Come for me, Scarlet,” he growled, “that’s it, I love you so much - ”

Scarlet cried his name and clenched around him. Wolf saw stars.

As Scarlet began to come down, Wolf felt his gut coil, and he drove into Scarlet faster and harder, urged on by her voice, now calmer:

“Yes, yes, stay with me, I love you, Ze’ev…”

Wolf came inside Scarlet, dimly aware that he was lying on her, but not lucid enough to make his arms work.

When he shook the stupor from his brain, he found Scarlet still definitely underneath him, stroking his arm with her free one. Wolf jerked up, rolling off of her.

“Scarlet! I’m so sorry, are you hurt?”

Scarlet rolled onto her side to face him. “Not on your life. You’re not _ that _ heavy, you know. I’m a big strong farm girl. I can handle you.”

Wolf let out an amused snort, leaning back down to kiss her. “That was amazing,” he declared, lifting his arm to let his hand stroke down Scarlet’s side.

“Thank you,” she replied haughtily. They both laughed. “It _ was _ amazing,” she agreed. “I don’t even know how you knew half of the things you did. Are you sure you never had sex before?”

“It must have been instinct,” Wolf lied. Asking Thorne for advice on how to make Scarlet’s first time worth her while was a secret he would take to his grave.

“Well, I don’t exactly have anything to compare it to, either,” Scarlet mused, rolling onto her back. “I’ll still assume it was above average, as are all the things we do.”

Wolf couldn’t stop smiling. He kissed Scarlet along her shoulder, listening to her breathing deepen and marveling at the fact that he was here with her, at the end of everything, sharing a life, and a home, and a bed.


	2. Baby Steps

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay LISTEN. I cannot stop thinking about how nasty these two are together. Am I disgusting? Probably. Am I also right? For sure.
> 
> I actually started planning this out as a smut series, but then I needed plot advancement so they're not just fucking literally all the time, and I happen to spend every single summer of my life working on my family's farm... so it got somewhat agricultural. Don't worry, there is filthy sex. Just hang in there.

Being back on the farm was so hard.

Scarlet was unspeakably happy to be home, but focusing on that idea for too long had proven to be troubling. The farm couldn’t be anything _but_ home, not since she’d fled Paris unaccompanied at far too young of an age to shelter in the only place she’d ever felt wanted, felt loved. She and Grand-mère, working together, had made their life here into something solid, unreproducible. For months, since her sudden departure to find Grand-mère last summer, Scarlet had craved the feeling of safety and belonging that had been stripped from her with Michelle’s kidnapping. _Even if I do make it home to France,_ she wondered, during her captivity on Luna, during quiet hours on the Rampion, _will that feeling return to me? Or is it lost forever? With Grand-mère gone, can I stand it?_

The answer, she was finding as the day went on, was “no.”

Scarlet was glad she hadn’t had any time to dwell on it when she and Wolf first arrived; disembarking from the Rampion, she had brought him upstairs to her bedroom and effectively jumped his bones. Bringing it to mind again this morning, Scarlet blushed furiously, shaking her hair to cover her face just in case anyone was near. Nonetheless, she was glad their first act in the long-dormant house had been one of love.

In the morning light, though, unexpected corners of the house and farm drew Scarlet’s attention with their emptiness. The unsettled feeling that had oppressed her for three weeks in August, waiting for police to respond to Grand-mère’s disappearance, was back in full force, stifling and compounded by the quiet. There were no mutterings to chickens outside, no muffled cursing from underneath the delivery ship constantly in need of repair, none of the hallmarks of life with Grand-mère, unheeded until the day Scarlet realized they - and Grand-mère - were gone.

She wasn’t able to take being in the house. She had waited downstairs for Wolf to get out of the shower, wanting to ask him what he wanted for breakfast, but the altered atmosphere had her peering around corners and feeling shadows of a life lost creeping behind her. Scarlet had burst out of the back door and into the fields, where she was still stomping dirt into clouds around her feet.

Her determined steps had taken her to the edge of the property, where the cornstalks stood tall during the growing season. Maybe her subconscious had been seeking out a place to hide, where the sight of the farmhouse would leave her alone - but of course it was only early spring, and the corn wasn’t even planted yet. Scarlet hadn’t had a chance to catch up with Émilie yet, to touch base on what parts of the business had fallen to the wayside during her absence. Had all the fields been harvested at the end of the season? Had they been taken care of afterward? Some of the fields were tilled after harvest, while others were left to litter. Did the hands and the androids stay on top of things? Were they paid for all their time?

There was so much she had to assess. Scarlet hadn’t even been home for a day and already the workload loomed in front of her. Planting would have to begin soon, within the next few weeks, if they were to stay on top of the produce orders she knew would start coming in advance.

How was she supposed to do all of this without Grand-mère?

Scarlet’s breath heaved, and her face crumpled, giving in to the sorrow she had been staving off. She hadn’t cried for her grandmother since the night she’d died. In her bunk on the Rampion, fresh off Cinder and Thorne and Iko’s rescue, the pain of her failure and loss was so raw. Now, even after having months to process the grief, Scarlet was dismayed to find that the feeling was exactly the same.

Tears coursed down her face, but she tried to hold in the sobs that wanted to break out of her chest. Wolf, she knew, would hear, even from inside the house, and honestly, she wasn’t sure whether she wanted his comfort or not. He’d been through enough anguish of his own; he didn’t need to see her like this.

A less charitable part of Scarlet added, from the back of her brain, _Besides, this is my private pain. He didn’t even know Grand-mère, how could he understand?_

At that thought, Scarlet’s entire body flashed with shame - Wolf’s mother had been shot to death right in front of him. How could she think such a selfish thing of him?

It was too much. Her pain was wrapped up in his. Scarlet’s trembling legs wouldn’t support her anymore, and she crumpled to the ground, sobbing into her hands. It was just the two of them against the world now. In most lights, that was a good dynamic, one that she treasured. In this moment, though, all Scarlet could see was their loneliness.

The dirt smelled like home. Scarlet wept.

She couldn’t have been on the ground for more than a minute before Wolf arrived. “Scarlet,” he croaked, and she heard him fall to his knees next to her. “What is it? Are you all right?”

Scarlet pulled her hands from her face, but sobs still wracked her body, her tears blurring the sight of him. That was probably for the best; she couldn’t look him in the eyes anyway. Only the first morning they were sharing back on Earth, and she was crying her eyes out, covered in dirt. She reached for him blindly, craving his warmth, his solidity. Wolf’s hand wrapped around hers, sure and gentle. How could she have wanted to deprive herself of his solace?

She managed to pull herself upright enough to plant her face in Wolf’s shirt, awkwardly positioned an inch above his belly button, but Wolf understood what she wanted. His arms took her weight and carefully moved her heaving body until she was cradled in his lap. Scarlet gripped his shirt, letting herself sag into his embrace. Wolf pressed a kiss into her hair, murmuring words that Scarlet didn’t have the mental bandwidth to focus on.

When her shuddering breaths finally began to level out, Scarlet was able to nuzzle her forehead into Wolf’s chest. With a last sniffle, she wiped her face with the hand not pressed between their bodies and let out a shaky breath. “Sorry,” was all she could think to whisper.

Wolf was rubbing soft circles into her hip with his thumb, over her shirt, but the soothing effect was belied by the tension Scarlet could feel in his body. “You have nothing to apologize for,” he said, making it sound irrefutable.

Scarlet finally dared to look up at Wolf’s face, reasonably sure she was emotionally stable enough to meet his intense gaze without bursting into tears again, but his eyes were closed, like he was focused on the task of holding her. A little residual tremor went through her limbs - she did not deserve this man. “I didn’t mean to scare you,” she explained, focusing on the feeling of his thumb circling away, grounding her to the present. “I’m… that’s it, actually. I’m really scared.” Wolf opened his eyes and looked at her, and Scarlet realized she was wrong - eye contact had her eyes welling up with tears again. She rushed on before Wolf could ask the questions she could see brewing in his brain. “All this time, I’ve been waiting for the _end_ of it all - I keep thinking ‘once this is over, everything will be better’ - but then it _isn’t_.” This wasn’t making any sense, but Scarlet wasn’t sure she cared. “It started with ‘once I find Grand-mère,’ and then ‘once I get out of this cage’ - ” she pretended not to see the flinch of tortured memory in Wolf’s face - “and then ‘once Levana is dead.’ But Cinder being queen didn’t let me stop, then we had to cure letumosis, and I was still thinking once _that_ was over, that would be the end of it, and we’d get to go home and everything would _finally_ be okay.” A tear overflowed her eyelid and started on a path down her already-wet cheek. “But we’re home, and our adventure is over, and she isn’t here to see it, so how can that be better?”

Wolf’s hand moved to cup her cheek, wiping the tear away with his thumb. “I’m so sorry, Scarlet,” he whispered fervently. His brow was furrowed, and Scarlet knew he hated that he couldn’t do anything to fix this. “I know being back here is hard. I hated going back to my home, on Luna. Even seeing my mother again didn’t erase all the changes in my life, all the reasons being in my house felt so different… I felt so alone. But I was alone then…” Scarlet covered Wolf’s hand on her face with her own, kicking herself for making him relive his fears during her captivity. At her touch, Wolf bowed over her, bringing his forehead to rest on her own. “Is that how you feel now?” he pressed on, his breath hitting her face in little puffs.

“Alone?” Even in the aftermath of her crying jag, Scarlet couldn’t help a little rise of levity. “Not with you all up in my business.” She moved her hand to Wolf’s face to offset her sarcasm, hoping to make him stay all up in her business. It worked; he didn’t move away, and she could just see, zoomed in on his face as she was, a wry smile quirk his lip. “I feel… bereft. Lost. Really, really sad. I want my grandma.”

They were quiet for a minute, and Scarlet used the moment to quell her tears again. Crying had been inevitable, but it wouldn’t change the fact that Grand-mère would not be here to help her. Scarlet had to learn how to live her life without her.

Wolf lifted his head so their foreheads no longer touched; he must have had a terrible crick in his neck from bending over her for so long. “She was lucky to have you,” he intoned. And then, with a grin: “Everyone’s lucky to have you. The world as we know it wouldn’t exist anymore if you didn’t love your grandma so much.”

Scarlet had entertained this thought before, in contemplative moments on the Rampion, but the notion was so disproportionate that her brain simply rejected it - she was just a girl from small-town nowhere. In this moment, her desire to avoid delving into the topic of her intergalactic importance was enough to release the sadness hovering around her mind. She turned away from Wolf, taking in the fence delineating the farm’s property, the blank brown fields waiting to be planted. “I love her so much,” she agreed with his last statement, “and she loved this place. Which means I have a lot of work to do to get it up and running.” She rested her head on Wolf’s shoulder, wondering if his arms were tired from holding her to him. “I owe her that much.”

“Farming, huh?” Wolf mused. “Does this mean I’m finally going to get to eat decent food again?”

Scarlet widened her eyes comically. “You don’t miss all the goopy canned produce and dried meats on the ship?”

Even as she was saying it, Wolf was pulling a face and shaking his head, making her laugh. “I _dream_ of your tomatoes, Scarlet,” he groaned.

“It sure doesn’t take much to catch your attention,” Scarlet teased, swinging her legs out of Wolf’s lap and standing up. She held a hand out to help him to his feet. “If I hadn’t waved a plate of vegetables in your face the first time we met, you’d be on some other girl’s farm right now.”

“Untrue and hurtful.” Wolf was in her space again, still holding her hand. With his other, he stroked her cheek, rooting Scarlet to the spot. “Your vegetables were only, like, the third most attractive thing about you that night.”

“Oh, yeah?” Scarlet raised an eyebrow, unable to resist. “What were the other two?”

“You stood up for Cinder.” Wolf smiled, the upturn of his lips making his face dashing and inviting. “And, of course, you were the most gorgeous person I had ever seen in my life.”

Scarlet scoffed but couldn’t hide a smile. “Okay, charmer. Whatever you say.”

“I say I would like to kiss you.” Wolf’s eyes blazed into hers, and she couldn’t have said no even if she wanted to. Tilting her head up, Scarlet kissed her love gladly, bringing her hands up to rest on his chest -

“Oh, no,” Scarlet murmured, pulling away. “I ruined your shirt.” The white fabric was wet under her hand, gone translucent from the tears that had soaked it, and there were streaks of dirt rubbed in.

“I have others,” Wolf breathed, sealing his lips over hers again. Scarlet let herself be kissed until she needed to breathe, leaving Wolf to drop kisses on her forehead.

“You know, I actually was going to make breakfast,” she hinted, giving him a gentle push, only far enough to detach his demanding lips from her face, “but I keep getting sidetracked.”

“Yes, please,” Wolf grinned.

Scarlet took his hand and started the trek back to the farmhouse. Her - _their_ \- bedroom light was still on. “I was going to start cooking while you were in the shower, but I couldn’t stand how empty the kitchen was.” Wolf gave her hand a sympathetic squeeze. “Sorry, I know you must be starving. We didn’t even eat dinner when we got in last night.”

“I seem to remember eating quite well.”

It took Scarlet a beat to register Wolf’s tone. When it hit her, the blush painted her so hot she could swear her insides were cooking. “You are so annoying!” she yelped, yanking her hand from his and swatting his shoulder with it. “We have sex _one time_ and you’re already making jokes!”

Wolf’s eyes were crinkled with glee. “To be fair, I’m not sure about your caloric value. I _am_ pretty hungry now.”

“Excuse you, I’m very nutritious.”

“You’re a meal fit for a king. A delicacy.”

“And don't you forget it.”

* * *

Upon digging through the sparse pantry, Scarlet found a big jar of oatmeal that she cooked up, topping it with heaps of very dried-up brown sugar that she had to pulverize with a fork before it would come out of the canister. Wolf, bless his appetite, devoured every single bite of the simple breakfast. She wished they had some eggs or even bread for toast, but of course there was barely any food in the house. Émilie, the caretaker extraordinaire, had come and disposed of anything perishable. Scarlet hoped she had been able to use some food, that it hadn’t all rotted through. Farm life made one leery of waste.

When they were done eating, Scarlet grabbed the pad of paper on the counter that she and Grand-mère always used to make their grocery lists. She scribbled down “bread, milk, eggs, tomatoes”... there was so much they didn’t have, it was ridiculous. She basically had to restock the entire kitchen. Where would she even start?

_Staples_, she told herself. Cheese, until she could find out where Émilie had sent the cows to be boarded. Yeast, so she could start making her own bread again and not have to rely on loaves from the market. A lot of produce - the garden would need to be replanted.

“What do you want me to get from the market?” she asked Wolf, who was already proceeding to wash the dishes. She smiled at him, thanking him silently. She’d have to find the sponge so he didn’t have to scrub with just his hands next time.

Wolf opened his mouth, then closed it, his face going blank. He shrugged wordlessly, and Scarlet let it go without comment; Wolf was a little embarrassed about his lack of knowledge on things that were second nature to her, like his total ignorance of fresh food. Scarlet always told him there was nothing to be ashamed of, during their quiet conversations on board the Rampion, where they had gotten to learn so many things about each other. After all, there were plenty of things she didn’t know anything about, but Wolf did. “It’s not the same, Scarlet,” he had said. “Everything I know about, I learned because I had no life of my own. Everything you know how to do is due to your independence.”

Instead, she changed tack. “Do you want to come with me to town?” Hopefully if he came to the market himself, he would find things that he wanted to try. She would build his culinary palate if it killed her.

“Sure,” he agreed, albeit reticently. That was good enough for Scarlet. She got out a towel and came to stand next to him at the sink, taking the clean bowl from his hands to dry it.

* * *

Scarlet took a shower, washing the soil out of her hair. After double-checking the hangar to confirm that her ship was indeed still broken, that her father’s shattering its window didn’t happen in another lifetime, she called a hover to take them into town. Another chore she’d have to take care of in the coming days… she wished she could just call Cinder to come and make repairs.

But for now, she and Wolf were at the market. This time, she didn’t have to worry about the hover ride draining her account; for as many times as Thorne insisted on getting paid for installing Cinder on the Lunar throne, it turned out that there was a pretty sizable compensation for recovering and distributing the letumosis antidote. For some reason, Earth’s governments were willing to shell out a pretty penny to have their citizens’ health restored and their world stabilized. Even though Scarlet, Wolf, and Cress (and Thorne too, no matter how much he protested) would have done it regardless, Scarlet was glad to have the money. What if the farm went belly-up, no matter how hard she worked to get it on its feet again?

Of course, it didn’t hurt to have _two_ royal figureheads on speed-dial. Scarlet was sure she could rely on Cinder or Kai to lend a handful of univs, should she need it. Still, she was a long way from needing that kind of help just yet.

She held Wolf’s hand as they shopped; even after Émilie told her that Rieux was apparently singing her praises, she’d have to see it to believe it. They both knew that there were still plenty of anti-Lunar people on Earth, and Wolf was… very noticeable. Scarlet felt the loss of her gun, though she hoped she wouldn’t have occasion for it here. She added “buy new gun” to her lengthening mental to-do list.

Wolf let go of her hand while she was paying for honey and yeast at the bakery stand. By the time she’d finished her transaction and turned around, he was back, holding out a yellow Gerbera daisy.

“Welcome home,” he said quietly.

“Welcome home!” said another voice at the same time; Scarlet peered around Wolf to see Darcy the florist at her booth across the aisle, waving at her.

“Thank you!” she called back, smiling genuinely for the first time since they’d arrived in town. “Thank you,” she repeated, just for Wolf, as she took the flower. She handed him the items she’d just bought so her hands would be free. Pinching the daisy’s stem, she twisted it until the majority of it snapped off, leaving about two inches of green tube to tuck behind her ear. “I wish I looked a little nicer,” she chatted to Wolf as they set off again. “This flower belongs with a really cute sundress or something.”

“You look beautiful,” Wolf replied simply, holding his hand in her direction tentatively. As if she’d ever not take it.

* * *

They put away the groceries, Scarlet showing Wolf where each item would be best kept. Meat? Needed to be refrigerated. Little wrapped chocolates that Scarlet couldn’t resist as a treat for saving the world? Right in their mouths.

“What now?” Wolf asked when Scarlet closed the pantry door.

She puffed out a sigh. “I don’t even know where to start,” she admitted. “All day I’ve been remembering more chores I have to get done, and I’m going to have to go through Grand-mère’s files before I even know what I have to do for the farm. I have to call Émilie and find out what all she had to do to keep this place running - honestly, I ought to get her a present or something, she’s done so much for me.”

“Okay,” Wolf replied, reaching out a finger to trace the ridges of the braid she’d woven her wet hair into. “What would be the easiest thing to accomplish right now?”

“Chores, definitely.” The house was dusty, they had bags of laundry that the Rampion’s lightweight washing machine never got quite clean, and she wanted to check all the appliances to make sure they were clean and working properly. She took Wolf’s hand and kissed his fingers. “Thank you.”

He smiled broadly. “What do you want me to do? I don’t know how to farm, and I don’t know that Émilie would want to talk to me, but chores I can handle.”

“Can I give you a duster? The shelves are so cobwebby it’s like we’ve had indoor snow.”

Scarlet took on the bathrooms, though their main issue was also dust. Without anyone using the facilities for half a year, there was no soap scum in the shower or rust rings around drains. Still, she wasn’t going to half-ass the job now that they were home to stay. When she was done, the tile sparkled.

Next: laundry. Stepping into her bedroom, Scarlet was reminded of yesterday’s embarrassment, once she’d noticed how messy the room was. Clearly she needn’t have worried - Wolf only had eyes for her - but just because he didn’t care didn’t mean the room wasn’t a disaster.

She collected their discarded clothes from last night, their bags from the ship, and a healthy pile of strewn garments from before she’d left, just for good measure. Praying for no mildew, Scarlet hauled her armload down the stairs and into the laundry room. She heaved it all into the washing machine and started the cycle.

Wolf appeared in the doorway, striped with dust. “I think I’m going to need another duster. This one’s pretty caked.”

Scarlet turned to check the small cabinet for a replacement, and that’s when she saw the boots. Grand-mère had left them there on the floor, caked with mud, the night before… everything. She had said she’d scrub them clean in the morning. Scarlet had watched her from right where Wolf was standing.

With a shaky exhale, she picked up one of the muddy pair. “I won’t cry again,” she actually said, out loud. “These just… they were hers.”

Wolf came to stand behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. “Do you want me to wash them off?”

Scarlet sniffled, touched by the sweetness of his offer. “No, I want to do it myself. Later.” She set the boot down, turning around to wrap her arms around him. With her head on Wolf’s chest, she could feel his heartbeat. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she told him. His hand threaded into her hair; his blunt fingernails brushed against her scalp, and she shivered. “I don’t know what I would have done if you decided you didn’t want to come home with me. Probably just lie in bed and cry.”

“I could never leave you,” Wolf promised. “Where you are, I go.”

“Likewise.” Scarlet propped her chin on his chest so she could look up at his face. “I love you.”

Wolf kissed her, and when he tried to pull back, Scarlet wouldn’t let him go. When she finally detached her lips from his to kiss down his neck, Wolf swallowed. “Scarlet?” he ventured huskily.

“Yes.”

She took his hand and led him upstairs, into their room. She was glad she hadn’t stripped the bed to wash the sheets yet. Bare mattress sex would be weird.

Wolf was plucking at the elastic holding her braid together. The style had made her hair dry so that her curls were tamer than usual, falling around her face in waves instead of ringlets. Before long, they’d poof up again, but for now, she felt kind of sleek and beautiful. Especially with the way Wolf was looking at her.

She reached up to frame his face with her hands, and he leaned down to kiss her again. His hands went to her hips, and Scarlet paid it no mind until she realized he was toying with the hem of her shirt. He broke their kiss to press his lips to her cheek and asked, “May I?”

Unable to speak for a moment, Scarlet nodded. His low voice went through her like fire through paper.

Wolf took the yellow flower from her hair and laid it on the dresser, and then her shirt was being lifted over her head. As soon as it was gone, Scarlet kissed him again. Her fingers found their way to his belt loops so she could tug him over to the bed and they wouldn’t have to worry about the discomfort of breaching a ten-inch height difference. She put her hands on his shoulders so she could push him to sit down.

“You know, I love how large you are, but it makes romancing you a real challenge,” Scarlet groused, stepping between his legs to get closer to him.

“I thought about cutting myself off at the knees for you, but then I’d be top-heavy and I’d always be falling down,” Wolf teased.

“What, like you’re not already falling all over me?” Scarlet crowed. Wolf made an exaggerated face of shock, and she laughed giddily. He must not have had a good comeback, because he just shook his head in disgust and started planting kisses on her chest, humming disapprovingly while her laughter carried on.

“Please. If you weren’t so irresistible,” Wolf threatened between kisses to her throat, “or so brilliant, or so stunning, I might just walk away now. But alas, I love you too much to let you go.”

Scarlet scrunched her nose up at him. “You’re just saying all that to get into my pants.”

“What pants?”

Scarlet looked down and actually squawked. She had been so distracted laughing at her own joke and enjoying Wolf’s kisses that he had actually unzipped her jeans without her noticing. They were crumpled on the floor at her feet and Wolf’s thumbs, she observed, were tucked under the elastic of her underwear.

“How in the - you could be a magician!” she yelped, stepping out of the denim and letting Wolf lower her to the bed. “Of course, for your tricks to work - yes, please - ” she responded to his fingers tapping at her underwear - “for your tricks to work, you’d have to distract your audience members by kissing them, and I don’t want - _oh_,” she let out a shaky moan when his finger entered her, and her eyes fluttered closed, “I don’t want you kissing anyone besides me,” she babbled in a rush, trying to get the words out before her brain melted out of her ears.

She felt Wolf’s body heat before his lips landed on hers, and he obliged her wish by giving her a sweet kiss while his finger pumped inside her. “Well, if you say I can’t be a magician, then I guess I’ll have to make my peace with that,” he hummed in her ear, making her tremble, “but there’s only one type of magic that I know of, and that’s making you come.”

“_Fuck_, Wolf, that is so _hah_…” The last word was supposed to be “hot”, but his mouth was on her now, and it would take an amount of brainpower that Scarlet didn’t have right now to form words properly. When he had gone down on her last night, she was so surprised - that he even _knew_ about using his mouth on her - that she hadn’t appreciated it properly. Oh, he made her come, and it was fantastic, but half of her was just stunned that it was happening at all. He had always kept himself so… in check, until last night, never even asking to go past kissing. But now that they were home, were _alone_, he was apparently all too eager to give her pleasure. Now that they’d done this before, Scarlet could really enjoy the finer details.

His tongue. Was so _long_.

She could hear herself moaning Wolf’s name, swearing, encouraging and threatening him, but she had no control over her voice. His nose nudged her clit and she let out a high-pitched mewl. Then his fingers were there, and Scarlet’s eyes flew open. She had grabbed a handful of Wolf’s crazy hair, desperate to keep him _there right there_. She was climbing, climbing…

He met her frenzied gaze and she was done for.

When she was lucid again, Wolf was lying next to her, and seeing that she was still with the living, he kissed her temple. Scarlet opened her mouth to congratulate him on his existence, but her breath shuddered out instead - Wolf’s free hand was cupped over her mound, and his fingers were rubbing patterns in the valley between her vulva and her thigh, an inch of her body that she’d never found erotic before but was now ruined for her forever due to his ministrations.

“You are torture personified.” Scarlet kissed Wolf’s chin petulantly, trying to shift her legs so that his fingers would be where she still, unaccountably, wanted them. She could feel the stickiness between her legs, but he wouldn’t budge. She knew how to get him back, though.

Pressing her own hand to his erection in his pants, Scarlet gloried in the way Wolf’s hips bucked and his eyes glazed over. “Scarlet,” he groaned, but she couldn’t tell whether her name was meant to be encouragement or dismissal.

“How are all your clothes still on?” she asked, moving her hand lower, to the underside of Wolf’s bulge. He shuddered. “It’s very unfair that you can get me all hot and bothered without even showing a little bit of skin, while I’m over here, naked and wanton, and you’re totally in control of your body.”

Wolf actually snorted. “Scarlet, you could get me hot covered in toxic waste.”

“Well, yeah, because it would have dissolved all my clothes.”

Wolf smiled. “You’re not naked, by the way. If we’re getting technical.”

Scarlet reached back impatiently and unhooked her bra, tossing it across the room emphatically. “Now will you fuck me, please?” His hand was still down south, and it was driving her absolutely crazy.

“Are you sure?” Wolf asked, but he was already reaching for the collar of his shirt.

Scarlet saw her opportunity to dive for the button of his pants. “_Yes_, already.” She had his cock out in three seconds, now that his teasing hand was busy with something besides making her lose her mind.

Wolf fairly leapt off the bed, shoving his pants the rest of the way off and tossing all clothes away. Scarlet got a good show of his erect penis for about two seconds before he was crowding her back on the bed, returning a finger to her pussy and making her moan, circling her opening and making her bite her lip.

“_Oh_, Wolf, I want your dick in me,” she demanded, and he smiled, pulling her lip gently from between her teeth so he could kiss her.

“I love your dirty mouth,” he rumbled. Scarlet could taste herself on his lips.

“I’ve got more where that came from, buster,” she retorted. “You did not fall in love with a nice girl.”

“Nope.” Wolf grinned. “I fell in love with a perfect one.” His head was pushing at her entrance, and it felt so good Scarlet could scream. She fought the urge for her limbs to scrabble at the sheets, letting Wolf take his time. There was no better sensation than feeling him completely seated inside her, filling her up. Even though she’d only felt it once, Scarlet knew she wanted to have that every day for the rest of her life.

When their hips met, they were both breathing hard, letting their bodies adjust to the sensory overload. Scarlet kissed Wolf’s shoulder, the closest bit of him she could reach, and shifted her hips, wanting him to go on. When Wolf moved, the slide of his member inside her was all she knew.

She should have known she couldn’t control her mouth. “Yes, yes, yes, yes” turned into “more, don’t stop” turned into “I love you, oh, _Wolf!_” His hand found her breast, thumbing her sensitive nipple; Scarlet bit into his neck, latching on until she felt the vibrations in his throat.

He was talking now, thrilling her heart as she heard his words: “Stars, love, you’re everything. Gonna bury myself in you, make you feel so good, you’re mine - ” Scarlet captured his lips with hers, coaxed his mouth open, thrust her tongue in. His sweat was getting rubbed on to her face, sweeter than any perfume.

Wolf’s leg jostled hers, and she pulled her knee up by reflex - the new angle was so surprising, so stimulating, that she whined sharply into Wolf’s mouth. Before she could even think to touch her clit herself, his hand was already there, ratcheting her up. “Wolf,” she breathed, and he nipped at her jaw. In three strokes, she was gone.

Coming down from her orgasm wasn’t easy with Wolf still pistoning away, absolutely delectable, but Scarlet was spent. “That’s it,” she encouraged him. “Fuck, Ze’ev. Come for me.”

“Oh, Scarlet.” His gorgeous, feathery eyelashes fluttered as he hit his peak, and Scarlet relished the rush of fluid inside her as he came. She kept her pelvis aligned with his as he slumped to the bed, wanting to keep him inside her for as long as she could.

Scarlet took the moment of recovery to trace Wolf’s brow, his chiseled cheekbones, the little sharp point of tooth that poked out from his lip. He was so lovely.

“You’re incredible, you know that?” she said when his eyes opened. Wolf looked muzzily at her, a bashful smile growing on his face. Scarlet really meant it, too, but she couldn’t resist taking aim: “You didn’t even finish the dusting!”

* * *

After they’d both taken their second shower of the day, Scarlet found Wolf a fresh duster, and she did some research on her portscreen to find a vehicle mechanic who would make house calls. She had a farm to get back into business.


	3. Émilie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit, this chapter ended up being so long. For the next few chapters, things are gonna be a little plot-heavy, but once they're established on the farm it should get less exposition-y and more... sex-positiony... I CAN promise you that there will be smut in every single chapter. I know what I'm here to do.
> 
> Wolf has some trouble with his words today. He's still working on thinking of Scarlet's room as "theirs." Hopefully it doesn't come across too stilted. I find I tend to over-explain everything in my writing, so I tried to lay off. Let me know if I need to make anything clearer! Or less clear. Or anything, really. CRITIQUE ME.

Scarlet made them some grilled sandwiches for a late lunch; Wolf sliced cheese from the big block they’d gotten from the market, and they chopped vegetables together, Wolf peering at her knife out of the corner of his eye to mimic her movements. While they were eating, she propped her portscreen on the pepper shaker in the middle of the table and commed Émilie.

“Scarling!” Émilie’s blonde curls filled the screen. “You’re home!”

Scarlet rolled her eyes at the nickname, but the beaming smile on her face made Wolf’s heart pound. “I’m home!” she repeated, laughing lightly and looking at Wolf over the device. “And Wolf is here with me.”

“Oh, I _know_,” Émilie drawled as Scarlet reached for the seat of Wolf’s chair. Before he could stop her, she had tugged him into view of the portscreen’s camera, and he swallowed his bite of sandwich quickly. “When Sophia came in for her shift, she was telling anyone who would listen about the man holding Scarlet’s hand at the market - oh, you meant he’s _here_ \- uh, hi.”

“Hello.” Wolf waved a hand stiffly, trying not to let his discomfort show. The fact was, when he was staying in Rieux the first time, Émilie had come on to him pretty strongly. He’d started frequenting Gilles’s tavern on the recommendation of some other fighters, and had been too nervous to try any other establishment in town when she started flirting with him. It wasn’t that Wolf didn’t like Émilie, it was just that he had no idea how to deal with the interest she showed in him. He’d never in his life been looked at as a romantic possibility, and to be entirely honest, it made him uncomfortable.

Of course, then Scarlet had walked up to his table, and he was so captivated that he couldn’t help the hapless attempts at flirtation that wriggled away from his self-control over the next few days until they got to Paris. He hoped Émilie hadn’t nursed feelings as strong as his for Scarlet; he couldn’t imagine the pain that he’d feel if Scarlet had turned him down. He’d feel terrible if he made Émilie feel that way about him, but he certainly wasn’t changing his mind.

“I wanted to talk to you about… well, everything,” Scarlet’s voice cut across Wolf’s musings. “I can’t thank you enough for taking care of the farm for so long - you know I was definitely not intending on being gone for _months_, especially during the harvest, and I’m so grateful that you were here. I will give you whatever is in my power to repay you.”

“Oh, we’ll talk about payment,” Émilie’s eyes narrowed playfully. “I don’t believe for a minute that there’s anything _not_ in your power to give, Mademoiselle Intergalactic Hero.”

“It was only two planets,” Scarlet shot back in an exaggeratedly obnoxious tone, twirling a curl as part of the affectation.

“Luna isn’t a planet, frecklebutt.”

“Ém!” The two of them burst into laughter of a sort that Wolf had only heard when they were among their friends, physical and unselfconscious. If they were in the same room together, they would have been leaning on each other. Wolf took the opportunity to duck out of shot and take another bite of his sandwich; he didn’t want Émilie to watch the way his jaw moved now, the sharp teeth poking out of his mouth.

Once their giggles died down, Émilie resumed, “There is definitely a lot I have to update you on. You have to start planting soon, right?” Scarlet nodded heavily, widening her eyes for emphasis. “Well, are you going to make me invite _myself_ to dinner? There’s way too much to tell you to do it over comm.”

“Yes, duh. Of course. Dinner is a great idea. Are you okay with that?” Scarlet turned to ask Wolf.

Taken off guard, he shrugged, adding a conciliatory nod to make it clear that he was on board with whatever she wanted to do. If he seemed less than enthused, it was because he was, but the least he could do was be polite about it. They’d barely been home for a day… he thought he was going to get more time alone with her than this.

Scarlet looked askance at him, but he stood up, collecting their dishes to wash them. Scarlet snagged his hand when he picked up her plate and brushed a kiss onto it, calling a quick “Thank you” to him over her shoulder. His enhanced hearing still allowed him to hear their conversation perfectly, but he made himself tune it out, at least for the minute or so he spent at the sink. Watching their familiar interaction felt voyeuristic.

He put the washed and dried dishes away, thankful he remembered which cabinets they belonged in, and then he had no other non-rude choice but to return to his seat. Thankfully, Scarlet was saying “We’d better hang up. If you’re coming over, Wolf and I have got some cleaning to do. We’ve already been at it for a while, but this place is a mess.”

“Hey, I kept that house looking nice!” Émilie protested.

“Oh, yeah, you kept the pillows nice and fluffed,” Scarlet retorted. “What about the fact that you can’t walk past a surface in here without swirling up a dust devil?” Émilie stuck her tongue out at Scarlet, and she returned the gesture. “I really don’t care,” Scarlet conceded. “You did more than enough for me. See you in a while?”

“Wild animals couldn’t keep me away,” Émilie promised. She hung up, and Scarlet turned her portscreen off.

“Well,” she huffed, leaning back in her chair. “Now we have a deadline.”

She had Wolf take the wet clothes out of the washing machine and put them in a basket. Carrying a lumpy bag of clothespins, she led him outside to the clothesline, and they started hanging the laundry to dry.

“Can I ask you something?” Scarlet ventured from the other end of the line, her words a bit muffled around the pins in her mouth.

“Of course.” Wolf was concentrating on pinching his own pin open, smaller in his modified hand than he was used to. His family had used a clothesline on Luna, and a washtub; Scarlet and Thorne had had to teach him how to use the mechanical washer and dryer on board the Rampion.

“Why don’t you want Émilie to come over for dinner?”

“What makes you think that?” Wolf tried for nonchalance, but of course it didn’t work. Scarlet could smell a lie from a mile off.

“Don’t lie to me,” she admonished quietly. “You couldn’t even stand to be on the comm with her for more than a minute. Now, I know I promised her, but if you really don’t want her coming here, I can call her back and cancel. But I do think she deserves an explanation.”

There was a breeze brushing them, pushing the clothes on the line in gentle billows, blowing Scarlet’s hair over her face. Wolf watched her pinning shirts, moving down the line towards him; they were working from opposite ends, close to meeting in the middle. “No, you shouldn’t cancel on her. I’m being…” He trailed off, unable to find good words to explain what he was feeling. “Does Émilie still… like me?” he finally blurted.

Scarlet looked up at him. “No.” She sounded surprised, though he felt it was a reasonable question. “Well, of course she _likes_ you, you’re my alpha, but she’s definitely let go of her crush. Same reason,” she smirked.

“Oh. Good,” Wolf replied lamely. He busied himself with digging out another handful of clothespins from the little bag.

“Is that what you’re worried about?” The teasing lilt in Scarlet’s voice he (usually) loved so much was in full force. He didn’t dare to meet her eyes. “That your charm and good looks have forever beguiled the women of this village?” She was off; Wolf was pretty sure she was driving toward a compliment that would show up eventually. He knew she couldn’t stand the thought that he would believe she was insulting him. “And they’ll chase you through the streets just to get a glimpse of your face. Pretty soon they’ll be collecting your hairs and making clumsy attempts at voodoo to catch your affection!” Scarlet sidled beneath his arms, outstretched to hang pairs of socks, and reached up to place her hands on his biceps. “Don’t worry, though, I’d fight them off to preserve your honor.”

“That’s why you’d fight them off? No other reason?” He couldn’t not play along, with mirth lighting up her face and the laundry abandoned in its basket.

“Nope.” Scarlet shook her head decisively even as she rose on her tiptoes. Wolf kissed her, stopped, brushed strands of hair out of her laughing face, and tried again.

When she let him go, she ducked under the hanging clothes in front of him and started pinning pants on the line running parallel to the one Wolf was working on. “You know that’s not what I think,” Wolf resumed their conversation.

“You don’t? _I_ think so,” Scarlet insisted. “Newsflash, handsome, you made quite the impression your first time in town.”

“That’s why I had to ask,” Wolf forged on, not letting himself dwell on the thought of even more people finding him… intriguing. “I don’t want to make Émilie upset or anything.”

“You won’t.” Scarlet bent down for her own handful of clothespins. “The only way Émilie will be upset is if you don’t try to make friends with her. She wants to get to know you. As _my_ boyfriend.”

“I want to know her, too,” Wolf agreed. “She’s your best friend, and that’s important.”

“Not quite,” Scarlet countered, and Wolf looked across the clotheslines at her, puzzled. True, Émilie wasn’t the only person she talked about from Rieux, but he’d felt sure she was Scarlet’s closest friend… Of course, they’d just spent months in close quarters with Cress and Thorne; Winter had been her only salvation for a long while; Cinder was almost like a sister. They’d gone through too much in the last year for friendships to stay the same. “My _oldest_ friend, there’s no question,” Scarlet was still explaining. “But you’re my best friend. Don’t tell her I said that,” she threatened Wolf with a pointed finger. “That really would hurt her feelings.”

Wolf could have been knocked over with a feather. Blinking dumbly, he croaked, “I’m your best friend?”

“Of course you are,” Scarlet confirmed. “You’re my alpha.”

“But… really?” The shorts Wolf had been pinning fell to the grass, the pin actually clipped an inch to the left in his daze.

“Yes,” Scarlet said firmly; Wolf knew by her tone that she could tell he needed convincing. Her last pin snapped shut with a decisive click, and she ducked under the clotheslines again to get in his space. “A best friend is someone who just gets you. You get me better than anybody. Do you think I bring just anyone home to live with me?”

“You and Émilie ‘just get’ each other too,” Wolf replied, thinking of their easy comm.

Scarlet bent down to pick up the fallen shorts, and Wolf re-hung them. “Yeah, and she was my best friend, until you came along. I don’t know how you could have missed this, but you’re my absolute favorite person ever. That makes you the love of my life, my right-hand guy, and my dearest, closest, _best_ friend. You’re just going to have to get used to it.”

Wolf took both of her hands in his and kissed her forehead, his pulse racing. He knew Scarlet loved him, but every time she actually said it, it was like the first time all over again. Now, finding out that she loved him as a friend as well… it was the simplest sentiment, but Wolf was coming to realize that multiple types of love could exist in the same person, and it was a little overwhelming.

He had gone through the other side of speechlessness into articulation again. “I’ve never had a best friend before. I didn’t realize that you’re mine until now.”

Scarlet shrugged with affected modesty. “I had a feeling.”

* * *

Émilie was coming at six; Scarlet told Wolf of how prompt her grandmother always was and expected everyone else to be. “She won’t be late, not after the amount of Grand-mère’s dinners she’s had,” is how Scarlet phrased it.

That meant they had about three hours left to work. They wiped down the appliances in the kitchen, toggling them on and off to check that they were operable. Scarlet even flipped the light switch, even though they had used the kitchen multiple times today.

“You know what? I haven’t even given you the grand tour,” she realized aloud. “Come on, we can check electrics as we go.”

Wolf followed dutifully, though he had seen most of the first floor already as he dusted earlier. The foyer, sitting room, bathroom, and laundry room were familiar now, and he pushed buttons and flicked switches at Scarlet’s direction. The netscreen and stereo in the sitting room were modest but modern, no surprise to his interpretation of Michelle Benoit as a no-nonsense farmer who still liked to keep up to speed. While Scarlet tested the array in the foyer controlling various porch and yard light combinations, Wolf indulged in watching the rotating picture frame on the wall. All of the photos of Scarlet were unfamiliar to him, and he loved every new one that appeared even more. There was one of her only a year ago, by his estimation, wearing overalls and crouching in a row of plants, grinning broadly. She was holding a misshapen carrot that looked like a stretched-out human face in one dirty hand. The next one showed an android farmhand sporting a dandelion crown on its mechanical head, Scarlet just visible in the background laughing - surely the floral culprit.

Scarlet took his hand to steer him on, and Wolf raised it to his lips to kiss it.

She led him to a closed door, but hesitated before opening it. “Grand-mère’s office,” Scarlet explained quietly.

“We don’t have to go in,” Wolf reminded her gently.

“I know,” Scarlet nodded. “But I need to.”

A neat desk took up one corner of the office, set up with a basic, old computer. Two file cabinets filled a whole wall of the tiny room. When he and Scarlet walked in, there was hardly enough room to move.

“This is it,” Scarlet sighed, patting a file cabinet so that the metal made a _bong_. “All the records for the farm… everything I have to figure out.”

Wolf flicked the light switch, so small against his huge finger. The light turned on, and Scarlet smiled.

“Right,” she sighed, moving to the computer. “We’re on a mission. Can’t get too distracted.”

There was a little potted plant on the windowsill, long dead and yellowed. Wolf picked it up while she was turning the computer on, cradled a withered leaf.

A _bing!_ announced that the computer was working fine. Scarlet looked up at him. “Oh, we’ll put that on the compost heap,” she told him, nodding to the plant.

“Compost?” Wolf furrowed his brow.

“Yeah, I’ll show you. Grab your shoes.” Scarlet led him through the sitting room again and out the back door. The garden was off to the left, and as they walked, Wolf caught a whiff of something truly putrid. He had just spent months on the Rampion, darting all over Earth to distribute antidotes, and there were still new things to assault his senses around every corner. He didn’t want to ask Scarlet what it could be and expose yet another hole in his life experience.

Scarlet opened the garden gate and took the potted plant from him. “Over here,” she pointed while they walked, “this is the compost heap.”

“What is it?” Wolf had to ask. The word did nothing to clear things up for him.

“Well, it’s a big pile of rotting garbage.”

Yes, that would explain the stench. The heap was about four feet tall, taking up about half of the width of a wooden enclosure. “Why,” Wolf tried not to choke, “do you have it?”

Scarlet was wriggling her finger around the rim of the dead plant’s little pot, loosening the soil from the edges. “We use it for fertilizer,” she explained. “Organic matter goes in, heats up, gets nice and nutrient-y, and we dump it over the garden soil to make our plants strong and healthy.”

They were about fifteen yards from the heap now, and Wolf couldn’t make himself move any closer. He pulled the collar of his shirt over his nose, which, while it didn’t help entirely, had the pleasant side effect of introducing Scarlet’s lingering scent to his fried nostrils. If he couldn’t find a way to bottle her smell, maybe he should just beg her to roll around on all his clothes until they were permeated with her.

Scarlet dumped the plant and soil out of the pot, turned around, and finally noticed how far back Wolf was. She shot him a quizzical look. “It’s the smell,” Wolf admitted through the fabric of his shirt. “It’s so… strong.”

“Oh, stars,” Scarlet muttered, hurrying back to him. She grabbed his arm to pull him along, walking briskly back to the garden gate. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. It’s not supposed to smell like that, it’s been left to sit for too long, and if it smells bad to _me_…”

“It’s fine.” Wolf pulled the shirt from his face and stopped Scarlet on the other side of the fence. Leaning over her, he pressed his face to her hair and inhaled deeply. “Much better,” he murmured into the top of her head. He felt Scarlet’s hands curve around his forearms.

“I probably shouldn’t think this is cute, but I do,” she said. “Do you think Jacin ever sniffs Winter?”

Wolf smiled, enjoying being buried in her beautiful mane. “No, but Winter definitely sniffs Jacin.”

“Of course, silly me.”

Wolf still hadn’t moved, and he didn’t really want to ask and come away disappointed, but he would be remiss if he didn’t. Scarlet’s comfort came first. “Do you not want me to smell you?” he asked reluctantly.

Scarlet laughed through her nose. “I don’t care, Wolf,” she replied, shaking her head minutely like she was trying not to dislodge him. “As long as I don’t smell like the compost heap, go ahead.”

“You could never smell that bad.” Wolf let her go, satisfied and glad for her patience.

“I’m going to have to work to get it decomposing again,” Scarlet sighed, moving toward the house again. “Don’t worry, I will never make you go near that thing.”

“You said it usually doesn’t stink,” Wolf replied. “I can help you with it… when it’s a little less rancid.”

“If you’re sure,” Scarlet agreed. “Now, I believe we were mid-tour.” They had passed the back door and made it to the opposite corner of the house, where the laden clothesline flapped in the breeze, reminding Wolf of all the embassies the Rampion had visited, flags snapping down the pole. Scarlet pointed to the hangar, and next to it, the barn. “Obviously, we don’t have any livestock at the moment, so we’ll have to take this opportunity to give it a real thorough look, make sure nothing is broken or moldy…”

She showed him the empty chicken coop and run, the garden shed - strictly used by her grandmother and her to tend to their household garden - and the much larger field shed, on the border of the sprawling Benoit Farms and Gardens property. Scarlet actually walked him to the far edge of Benoit-owned land, pointing down the bank of the creek either way; to the right, a dirt path started, leading towards Rieux, too far to walk unless you had hours to spare, and to the left, according to Scarlet, the creek widened into a river for a mile and curved south, forming a deep meander that the village kids spent summer days leaping into.

It was a lot to remember. Wolf took Scarlet’s hand when they turned back toward the house, her touch as comforting as it always was.

Scarlet didn’t take him back inside, instead walking toward the garden side of the house again. A set of cement stairs led down from ground level, shored up with retaining walls and ending at a door below what Wolf knew to be the kitchen. “Here’s the root cellar,” Scarlet told him, moving down the stairs and opening the door. As Wolf followed her, he could actually feel the temperature drop, emanating from the room beyond. “We store some vegetables down here so they’ll keep better, since it’s so cool.”

The wooden shelves lining the walls were empty, and the floor was dirt. There was a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling, and Scarlet tugged on the chain for just long enough to make sure the light was still operating. The light coming in from the open door was enough to showcase the basic utility of the room.

“So it’s a giant refrigerator?”

Scarlet laughed. “Kind of, yeah. Can’t keep everything down here, though, but it frees up room in the kitchen.” She moved to exit the cellar, and Wolf scooted out of the way, shutting the door behind him. “Well, that’s the tour. I don’t think I’ve missed anything.”

“What about upstairs?” Wolf pointed out.

“Oh, there’s just the bathroom, our room, and Grand-mère’s room,” Scarlet said briskly. “Now, let’s see… I’m going to wash and change the sheets, and I have to figure out what to make for dinner. Is there anything you want to do before Émilie gets here?”

Wolf didn’t miss the way she skirted around the idea of going into her grandma’s room, but for now, he wouldn’t press. “I can help you with whatever you need.”

Scarlet toed her sneakers off at the back door. “You’ve been helping me all day. If you want to rest or anything, you should.” Wolf wasn’t sure how to tell her that he wasn’t entirely comfortable relaxing in this house yet. He knew he was welcome, but it still felt a bit like he was intruding in her home. “Want to flip through net feeds? I can show you how the screen works.”

Wolf shook his head. “No… I think I’d like to start looking through your things.”

“Looking through my things?” Scarlet raised an eyebrow.

Wolf reached up self-consciously to scratch the back of his neck. “Well,” he tried to explain himself, “I don’t have any jobs to do, books to read, princesses to train into soldiers…” Scarlet laughed. “Honestly, Scarlet, I don’t know where anything is in the house. I know you just took me on the tour,” he interrupted her attempt at rebuttal, “but what if you cut yourself? I wouldn’t know where to find a bandage. Or a port charger, or a pen, even.”

“Of course your example would involve me being hurt and you unable to help.” Scarlet rested her hands on his chest. “I would laugh at you, but you’re too sweet. Fine, I see your point. You want to get acquainted with the house; be my guest.” She tilted her neck back just a bit, and Wolf could take a hint. He kissed her gladly, rubbing her nose with his when she pulled back. “What’s mine is yours.”

“Anything embarrassing you want to tuck out of sight first?” Wolf teased.

“Besides my massive stash of love poetry addressed to Thorne? Nope, I’m an open book.”

Wolf rolled his eyes, grinning. “I set myself up for that.”

Even though it was his idea to look around in the first place, Wolf felt awkward snooping with Scarlet in the room. When she went to the bedroom to strip the sheets, he followed, tugging up the corners from the far side of the bed and shaking the pillows loose of their cases. Scarlet took the lot downstairs, her arms a pouf of linen, and then Wolf was free to explore her room.

Besides her bed (Wolf had to admit his interest hadn’t gone far past it in terms of the room’s contents), there was a small dresser with a mirror attached to the top, a desk, a bookshelf, and an armchair tucked into the bay window. Even with Scarlet’s blessing, Wolf wasn’t exactly interested in yanking open drawers. He was hoping to learn more about her from the way her things were arranged, the way her items and furniture were prioritized. He didn’t get to be the alpha of a pack by not being observant, able to read a person without having to speak to them. Of course, Wolf liked to think that he knew his love pretty well already, but he hadn’t known the person she was before all her security was pulled out from under her. This room, this house, held the contents of years of a normal life.

The first thing to catch his eye was the mirror. There were squares blocking the glass around the rim, and as he moved closer to look at them, Wolf realized they were photos. At what he knew to be Scarlet’s eye level, there was a simple shot of her and her grandmother, both smiling into the camera, Scarlet’s arm twined around Michelle’s. It must have been a special event for them both to be wearing dresses. There was a picture of Émilie and another girl he hadn’t met, probably taken with Scarlet’s portscreen, a bit of thumb covering a corner. And the photo at the top of the mirror showed a little redheaded girl, holding the hands of her mother and father. Wolf had never even heard Scarlet talk about her mother, though he’d met her delight of a father at the beginning of their doomed quest. He wondered whether Scarlet’s mom was better or worse.

Scarlet’s bookshelf was small but full, actually overflowing into a stack on the floor. Wolf knew she liked to read, though obviously she hadn’t had much chance to lately. He wondered what she would look like, curled up in the plaid-printed chair, chewing on a bookmark while she flipped pages. It wasn’t like Wolf had spent any time in a library while his very genes were being tampered with during his adolescence, so he didn’t expect to find any familiar titles, but he tilted his head to read the spines. They certainly sounded fanciful - _Tomb of Legend_, _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_, _Crooked Fingernail_. He really did want to try some Earth literature eventually, and where better to start than Scarlet’s favorites? He’d seen another shelf in the sitting room, so he was confident of finding plenty to choose from.

Wolf moved down the hall to the bathroom; here he knew he would need to do some drawer-pulling, especially if Scarlet, as he was sure she would, asked him innocently to get her a bandage. He ended up sitting on the floor, making short work of the many drawers and doors lining the long counter. There were several types of pain medications, an entire drawer of various ointments, bandages small and long, a large collection of hair accessories that he felt reasonably sure Scarlet had grown out of… though a smile did cross his face at the thought of her hair in purple heart-shaped clips.

Scarlet came up the stairs again, pulling open a narrow closet directly across from the open bathroom door. It was stacked floor to ceiling with towels, blankets, and sheets, and Wolf watched Scarlet pull out a fresh set for their bed. “Having fun in there?” she asked over her shoulder.

“I never knew there were so many ways to wash a body,” Wolf replied, peering into the largest cabinet. “Body wash, body scrub, body gel…”

“They’re all just soap,” Scarlet dismissed, leaning against the doorframe. “You clean yourself the same way no matter what you’re using. Grand-mère liked to collect smelly things.”

“Smelly things?”

“I just mean anything scented,” Scarlet clarified. “Every time we went to the market, Grand-mère would stop to smell all the candles.” She shifted the linens in her arms with a sharp inhale, as if to clear her mind. “Well, I’m going to put these on and get started on dinner. Do you have any more questions for me? Anything pique your interest?”

“Yes, actually.” Wolf gazed up at her. “Have I told you I love you today?”

Scarlet’s smile was wry, but the fondness in her eyes wasn’t. “Yes, but I’ll always take a repeat performance.” She leaned over to kiss the top of his head, and then she went. Grinning dopily, Wolf opened another drawer.

When Scarlet had been downstairs for a few minutes, he closed the last cabinet door softly. He felt a bit silly bothering to be quiet, but he wasn’t sure he wanted Scarlet to know his next move. He slipped out of the bathroom and carefully cracked open her grandmother’s door.

The bedroom was only a few feet larger than Scarlet’s, but it was absolutely trashed - clothes strewn all over the floor, the drawers of the dresser pulled out, a few photo frames cracked. For a moment, Wolf felt wretched - the pack had done this in Scarlet’s home. But after a moment’s thought, he realized this must have been her dad’s work. If Scarlet had found the room like this after Michelle’s disappearance, she would have known about foul play immediately. The idea that her own father would tear her house apart didn’t sit any easier with Wolf. He must have been truly desperate.

He bent down to pick up one of the battered photos, an image of a boy around ten years old and his mother - presumably Scarlet’s father and grandmother, decades ago. Scarlet had her grandma’s hair.

Setting it gently on the dresser, Wolf made to leave - then turned back at the last second to flip the light switch. At least now every light in the house was accounted for.

* * *

Wolf could smell vegetables and raw meat in the kitchen, but he wasn’t ready to offer his services to Scarlet just yet. Guilt plucked at the back of his mind, but he reminded himself that it was Scarlet’s idea for him to “relax” in the first place, and grabbed the desk chair from the sitting room. Carrying it into the foyer, he set it down in front of the digital photo frame by the door and settled in.

Having the freedom to do this was a large part of the reason Wolf wanted to explore the house. He had been sneaking glances at the shuffling frame every time he passed it, including the very first time Scarlet let him inside, fresh off the threat of being shot by her. Wolf had no photos of his own childhood. The fact that Scarlet had memories preserved forever, for her to revisit as often as she liked… he would never deny that he envied her.

Each photo took up the screen for fifteen seconds, then slid quickly to the left to be replaced by the next. This frame must have contained pictures from every aspect of Michelle Benoit’s life, all jumbled together: images from her youth, a few shots of Scarlet’s father as he grew, sunsets and favorite meals and old friends. Scarlet, of course, was heavily featured. A school portrait showed her with heavy bangs and missing baby teeth; her, sticking her tongue out in the low light of a bonfire; her, curled up asleep on the sitting room couch, a book still open in her limp hand.

Wolf wondered what photos he would want to see from his and Ran’s childhood. All he could remember was hardship, though his parents had still managed to make their modest life feel like a gift. Even if they didn’t have much, they had each other. It made being torn away from them even harder.

Wolf couldn’t remember what happiness on his little brother’s face looked like. He returned the chair to the sitting room.

In the kitchen, Scarlet had pulled her hair up, tendrils floating around her face as she bent over a tray on the counter. Wolf wrapped an arm around her waist from behind and pressed his lips to her temple. “Hi,” she hummed, leaning into him. “Are you here to help me?”

“Do you need help?” Wolf bantered gently. “It already smells fantastic, whatever you’re making.”

Scarlet shrugged. “I’ll always take assistance. I like it when we cook together.”

She didn’t need to ask Wolf twice. He held his hands out to take whatever she wanted to put in them.

“Okay, I’ve just taken the leeks out of their ice bath,” Scarlet explained, handing him the bowl she was holding. “Can you drizzle that vinaigrette over them? I want to check on the chicken.”

A knock on the front door sounded a minute before the food came out of the oven. “You’re early, Ém,” Scarlet hollered in the direction of the door. “Get in here!”

Wolf had no time to feel trepidation before a blonde head popped around the archway. “It’s really you,” Émilie marveled, dropping a file folder onto the floor as she rushed Scarlet.

Scarlet barely had time to set down her oven mitts before Émilie crashed into her. “Of course it’s me,” she huffed out, twisting to wrap her arms around her friend. Giving them a minute to reunite, Wolf started pulling plates and silverware out and onto the counter.

“I know, but…” Émilie pulled back, her long curls disentangling from Scarlet’s. “Does it sound crazy if I say I half-believed I’d never see you again?”

Scarlet sighed. “I’ve definitely had the thought cross my mind once or twice.”

Émilie took Scarlet’s hands. “I’m so glad to see - are you _missing a finger?!_”

“Only a little.”

“Scarlet!”

The oven timer beeped and Scarlet bustled over. “Okay, I will explain,” Scarlet promised, “if you let me get this dinner started. Wolf, you remember Émilie.”

“Of course.” Wolf nodded to her, unsure of what else to say.

“Hi.” Émilie had an easy smile, her eyes crinkling at the corners. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Yeah, I’m… I’m glad to be back.”

Scarlet slapped a hot pad on the counter, and Émilie moved closer to Wolf so Scarlet could set down the tray of steaming chicken and roasted vegetables. “Scarlet’s told me all sorts of good things about you,” she chatted. “I’m very much looking forward to hearing your whole story. Although it occurs to me,” she said loudly as Scarlet sampled a sizzling chunk of onion, “that I met you first, which means I’m actually your oldest Earth friend, so - ”

“You didn’t even know his name,” Scarlet cut her off, handing Émilie a plate. Pushing another into Wolf’s hands, she cocked her head up at him. “Are we fighting over you enough yet?”

“Plenty,” Wolf deadpanned. Émilie chuckled.

It was easy to see why Scarlet and Émilie got along. Wolf was struck by their comfortable interactions while they served themselves; even after months of separation, the way their conversation practically bounced between them left no doubt that they were close. Émilie poured them all glasses of water before sitting down at the table.

“I have been waiting for this for _months_, you two,” she gushed, blowing on a piece of potato to cool it down. “One day Scarlet asks me to keep an eye on the farm for a few days, the next, there are attacks all over the world and I can’t reach her, and _then_ I find out that Luna has undergone a whole revolution and Scarlet is in the middle of it! _And_ she gets a boyfriend! I want to hear the whole sweeping saga.”

Wolf and Scarlet looked at each other, bracing themselves. “Okay,” Scarlet ventured. “But you’re not going to like most of it. It was not all fun and games.”

“I remember little fun and definitely no games,” Wolf agreed.

“At least not any we liked to play.” Scarlet launched into the account of their last half year, thankfully skipping Wolf’s fight with Hunter and starting with her father’s sudden appearance at the farm. The whole tale actually didn’t take as long as Wolf was dreading, though it still took the entire meal to get through. Without lingering on their more tender moments, the first half of the story was downright simple.

When it reached the botched rescue of Cress, though, they both had to stop for a minute to collect themselves. Wolf moved his chair closer to Scarlet’s so he could touch his knee to hers while he recounted the events on the Rampion until they reached his childhood home. Émilie’s face was a mask of horror when Scarlet described her experience of being imprisoned on Luna, only to break into a huge smile once Scarlet found Wolf’s neighborhood and they were reunited.

They moved past the topic of Wolf’s modifications quickly, and he squeezed Scarlet’s hand gratefully. Together they got through the battle outside the palace and Cinder and Levana’s deadly showdown, and since Émilie already knew the ending, there wasn’t much more to describe. Scarlet did go over some of their work on the Rampion with Cress and Thorne, and managed to finish the story within an hour.

“So you’re close personal friends with a queen, an emperor, _and_ a princess now?” was Émilie’s first question.

“Winter’s not the princess anymore,” Wolf corrected.

“My mistake, just a girl who once held the title of princess and therefore had the power to abdicate it.” Émilie winked to show she was joking.

“Yep, happy ending,” Scarlet sighed.

“Oh, that’s not the happy ending,” Émilie said dismissively. She pointed at Wolf. “_You’re_ the happy ending. All those horrible things you both had to go through, and you still came out in the end with each other? I’m really happy for you.”

Scarlet reached across the table to clasp Émilie’s hand. “Thanks.”

“We are too.” Wolf was a bit surprised, but glad to find that the memories of all their trials had been relatively easy to rehash for Émilie. With Scarlet right next to him helping to tell the tale, everything seemed a bit less awful. A full stomach and warm house didn’t hurt either.

“All right, you’ve gotten your story,” Scarlet hinted. “Will you please give me the rundown on this place? Where did you send the animals? How was the final harvest?”

“I really had no trouble,” Émilie rushed to reassure her. “The chickens went to Monsieur Belanger, the rest are a little scattered around town. I brought a list.” She picked up the file folder she had brought, but hesitated over the full table. “Actually, should we move to the sitting room? We might need to spread out.”

“Yeah.” Scarlet stood up and started collecting their dirty dishes. “Let me clean up a bit.”

“I’ll wash up,” Wolf stopped her. “Go and focus on the farm.”

“Are you sure?” When Wolf nodded, Scarlet bounced up onto her toes to give him a kiss. “Thank you. Come join us when you’re done, okay?”

Wolf brought everything over to the sink and started running the water. It did nothing to dampen his ability to hear Émilie, across the hall in the sitting room, whisper, “He is so cute with you! I could watch him make eyes at you all day.”

“He also has enhanced hearing and can hear everything you’re saying like you’re right next to him,” Scarlet reminded her.

“...From how far?”

“Far.” Scarlet didn't bother to speak above a murmur. “Right, Wolf?”

Wolf turned off the faucet. “Yeah, I can. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for your talents,” Scarlet chided. Wolf allowed himself a little smile.

Their conversation turned to business, and Wolf focused on the dishes. Even if he could hear everything within the house, it didn’t mean he had to. He hated the way it felt like he was invading everyone’s privacy, especially his friends’, even if they were only talking about the weather. No one else overheard their jokes with friends or opinions on a building’s architecture, so Wolf strove to ignore discussions that didn’t concern him.

He dawdled putting everything away, trying to give Scarlet as much time alone with Émilie as he could. As much as he would love Scarlet’s undivided attention, Wolf liked seeing her spend time with someone else who loved her. She was a part of the entire town of Rieux, and sooner or later, Wolf had to resign himself to sharing Scarlet with the rest of them.

When he had put away the last dish and went to join them in the sitting room, though, Émilie had her arm around Scarlet, who was curled up against her friend, hiding her face.

“What’s wrong?” Wolf asked, kneeling in front of the couch where they sat.

Scarlet looked up from Émilie’s shoulder with a sniff. “I never registered Grand-mère’s death with the region,” she said simply. Wolf reached to cover her hands, clasped together in her lap, but she unclenched them to sandwich his hand between hers.

“We were just talking about the fact that the farm is willed to Scarlet,” Émilie explained. “But without a death certificate, I don’t know what they can do to transfer ownership.”

“What does that mean?” Wolf asked. “Since you don’t own the farm, you can’t work for it?”

“All transactions will still go through Grand-mère’s bank account, not mine,” Scarlet replied, “and without proof of death, I have no way to access hers. I don’t know if I can hire workers or androids, or buy equipment, or even make sales.”

Wolf hated the haunted look in Scarlet’s eyes. Anxious to ease her pain, he gave her a grim smile. “If worst comes to worst, we know a great hacker who owes us some favors.” Scarlet let out a choked laugh. “How do we get the certificate?”

“Maybe at the clerk’s office in town… will you go with me?”

“Of course.”

Émilie let her arm fall from Scarlet’s shoulders. “It’ll all work out. If the clerk can’t do it, we’ll figure it out from there. On the bright side, I don’t think the farm can get bought out from under you or anything, since it’s tied up for your grandma. If anyone would even want to buy this place.”

“Gee, thanks,” Scarlet snorted.

Émilie shrugged. “Made you laugh. Is there anything else I forgot to cover? I gave you the rental papers, employment records, stock boarding list…” She gestured to the piles of papers on the table Wolf was squeezed behind.

“If we forgot anything, I’m too distracted to remember it,” Scarlet sighed. “If I think of anything else, I’ll just comm you.”

“Agreed. Then I guess I’ll get out of your hair.” Émilie smacked a kiss into Scarlet’s hair before standing up.

Wolf stood to let Émilie past, and Scarlet followed them. “You don’t have to go,” she protested.

Émilie turned at the front door. “I know you want to get started on looking over everything. Plus, the sooner you do, the sooner I can stop worrying about this place.”

Scarlet rolled her eyes. “Fair enough.” She hugged Émilie, rocking back and forth a little. “Thanks for coming over. I missed you.”

“Me too. Thank _you_ for dinner.” Émilie let Scarlet go and turned to Wolf. “Do you hug? I won’t if you don’t want to.”

Pleasantly surprised, Wolf smiled. “Sure.” Émilie hugged his huge, hulking body like she embraced monsters every day. Then she was gone, and it was just him and Scarlet once more.

* * *

Scarlet was quiet for the rest of the evening, but she smiled when she saw that there was absolutely nothing for her to clean up from dinner. Wolf ribbed her for thinking he wouldn’t do a good job washing up, but he was glad to see her expression clear. In the dusk, they took the dry clothes and sheets off the clothesline. Wolf folded everything on Scarlet’s bed while she emptied drawers in her dresser for his clean clothes.

They sat down in front of all the paperwork in the sitting room again, flipping through contract renewals and closures from last autumn. From what Scarlet said, there seemed to be little change to the roster and payroll. They would be able to ease into the planting season with field hands who Scarlet knew and, presumably, trusted.

Wolf watched Scarlet’s eyelids sink lower and lower, the lone desk light amplifying the shadows under her eyes. “Why don’t we leave this for tomorrow?” he suggested before she could start on another pile of documents.

“It’s just so much more than I…” Scarlet trailed off, looking off to the side while she searched for words. “It’s not that I didn’t expect it to be hard work, taking over the farm,” she explained. “But I didn’t know how many things there were to do. Does that make sense? There’s always some other facet of the business I hadn’t considered.”

Wolf laid a hand on her knee. “We’ll get it all done,” he assured her, glancing over the laden table. “It’s a lot of work from where we’re standing, but so was getting Cinder on the throne. One task at a time, and we’ll be finished with it all before we know it.”

When he looked at Scarlet, she was smiling softly. “You’re right, of course.” He could actually feel a little bit of tension ease out of her body. “If getting the farm back up to speed also takes three months, though, I _will_ cry.”

Wolf stood up and offered Scarlet his hand. “Worry about it tomorrow.”

They headed up to bed. Wolf brushed his teeth while Scarlet changed into pajamas. By the time he realized he’d spent twice as long pulling up his lip to stare mournfully at his sharp, overlarge canine teeth as he had brushing them, there was no question that Scarlet would have noticed his too-long absence.

He returned to the bedroom, readying himself for some creative deflection - and stopped dead in the doorway.

Scarlet was lying on the bed wearing absolutely nothing. Not a stitch.

To his horror, Wolf’s dick was already responding. It really was that easy for Scarlet to excite him. Feeling like a lecher, he glued his gaze to her face. “What are you doing?”

Scarlet slid off the bed, padded over, and twined her fingers with his. “Getting you all to myself again.”

She kissed him, her taste so much preferable to the minty toothpaste that lingered in his mouth. Wolf could feel himself getting lost in her, the smell of her hair, out of its ponytail, the feel of her soft skin. He remembered vaguely that he was fully clothed, the most ludicrous state of dress to be in when confronted with a naked Scarlet Benoit.

“Scarlet,” he panted, pulling away from her lips for long enough to think. “What do you want?”

She untucked his shirt from his pants, pushing it up until he had to let go of her to get it over his head. “Your hands,” she instructed, a little breathless, delighting him.

The bed seemed unreasonably far from where they stood in the doorway. What was it doing halfway across the room, where it had always been? “Where?” Wolf followed up, scooping Scarlet’s knees out from under her.

She squealed, but recovered quickly enough to start kissing up his neck to his ear. “In me, dummy,” she whispered, clinging to him. Wolf had to restrain himself from physically dropping her onto the bed in his eager haste.

“I think only one of my hands can do that at a time. What should I do with the other one?” He hoped the flirtiness he intended was coming through, that his words weren’t reaching Scarlet’s ears in Desperation-ese. Though, did it really matter, as he parted her folds and her blooming arousal sent his heart racing? He let a finger get busily to work, the task it had been put into the universe to perform.

“Whatever you want,” Scarlet gasped, eyelids fluttering.

Wolf drank her in. Her parted lips, her peaked nipples, her coloring face. With his uninstructed left hand, he brushed a path up her side, skimming over freckles. Scarlet shivered under his whispered touch. When he reached her breast, Wolf curved his hand around it, ran his thumb over the nipple. Scarlet moaned; the finger working inside her felt the wetness he so loved to taste. She wanted his hands, though, so he’d have to satisfy himself with the rest of her. _Oh, what a hardship for me. _

“You know, you’ve ruined this bed for me,” Scarlet confessed, looking into Wolf’s eyes as he experimented, drawing circles around her areola.

“Oh?”

“The whole time I was putting on the new sheets, I couldn’t stop thinking about you.” She bit her lip. “What we’ve done on it.”

Wolf leaned down to kiss the hollow at her throat; the heel of his hand brushed her clit as he shifted, and Scarlet’s breath hitched, a whine escaping her. “Things like this?” Wolf added his middle finger to his ministrations. He could hear his fingers moving in her, coated in her essence.

Of course Scarlet would manage to correct him during sex. “Well, no,” she said, her voice vibrating under his traveling lips. “This is new.”

Wolf continued his kisses up her throat, along her jaw. “You’ll be able to think of it from now on,” he murmured in her ear. “My touch inside you, filling you up - ”

Scarlet grabbed his face and kissed him roughly, hissing, “Fuck,” into his mouth. With her lips right where he wanted them, Wolf began to graze her clit again, each brush eliciting “oh”s from her. He swallowed them as they left her mouth. “Oh right there right there _don’t stop_ \- ”

Scarlet’s mouth went slack under his, her orgasm surging around Wolf’s fingers. Unable to stop himself, electrified by her pleasure, Wolf’s hand continued pumping, soaked and audible. Scarlet’s chest heaved. He waited for her eyes to open again, pupils blown wide within the deep brown. “Wolf,” she moaned, realizing he was still working her, her hips twisting.

Wolf nipped along her trembling jaw. “Let me taste you, Scarlet,” he entreated, “let me use my mouth - ”

Jerkily, Scarlet nodded. Wolf kissed his way down her body, erection throbbing. When he took his hand from her, Scarlet sighed, soon echoed by the approving noises from his own throat as he licked his fingers clean of her fluid. Wolf shifted her body to the edge of the bed, kneeling at her entrance. The skin all around her lips was sticky, but Wolf went to work, licking away the mess he’d made of her.

Scarlet could cook the most delicious meal in the world and it still wouldn’t rival her pussy. Wolf draped her unresisting legs over his shoulders to get in closer, impossibly addicted. On a particularly long drag of his tongue through her, Scarlet swore a blue streak, legs quaking.

“Wolf, Wolf, I need you… Ze’ev, stop.”

Wolf’s eyes snapped open. Thrusting himself back on his knees, he overbalanced and sat abruptly on the floor, the shock pulsing in his cock. Scarlet sat up on the edge of the bed, arms braced at her sides to keep her upright while her gulping breaths evened out. “Thank you,” she huffed out. “Thank you for stopping. As much as I love every way you make me come, I’d much rather fuck you now.”

Her eyes bored into Wolf’s as he pushed himself to his feet. He unzipped his pants, the pressure of his erection shoving itself, underwear-clad, through the open fly as soon as the barrier was out of the way. Leaning down to her, he kissed Scarlet as he bared himself and kicked the pants away, his lips slick with her. Scarlet scooted back on the bed, giving him room to position himself with her.

“I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep going if you made me come again,” she whispered, legs spread.

“I’ll give it to you any way you want it,” Wolf breathed, kissing her nose softly. He pushed into her, a long-craved relief and a desire-stoking ache. Scarlet wrapped her legs around him and he groaned as he slid deeper.

They babbled encouragement to each other as they moved, sliding around each other. Scarlet was already ratcheted up, Wolf watching her shining eyes with undeniable smugness, his arms wrapped around her shoulders.

“You make me feel so good - _ah,_” Scarlet whined, tendrils of hair sticking to her sweaty forehead.

Wolf caressed the side of her neck, her shoulder, obsessed with the feeling of her surrounding him. “You’re the only one, Scarlet,” he swore. “You’re all I need.” With a little jerk of his hips, he was making contact with her clit again, that seemingly magic key to her completion, and Scarlet was _moaning_ in his ear…

She came like liquid fire, setting every nerve in his dick alight. He swore he tingled from the waist down, and then he was coming too, welcomed into her, caged in her arms.

* * *

Scarlet was next to him, watching him. Her hands were tucked under her head on the pillow. Wolf realized that the lights were off now, her face only outlined by moonlight.

The smile on her face could be described as mischievous. “Ah, Wolf,” she greeted conversationally, just looking at him for a beat. “Well, goodnight,” she said abruptly, the caprice in her voice barely suppressed, and rolled onto her back on her distinct side of the bed.

“Uh-uh,” Wolf denied humorlessly, grasping her stomach and dragging her to his chest. Scarlet giggled, ruse foiled. He kissed the laughter into submission and relaxed again with her close to him.

“I love you,” Scarlet whispered in the darkness. “Thank you for all your help today. And for dinner with Émilie tonight. I was really happy to see her.”

“Why are you thanking me?” Wolf shook his head, closing his eyes again. “You can do what you want, whatever makes you happy.”

“Yeah, but knowing you’re happy too helps.” They lay quiet for a while. “So how would you feel about us getting coffee sometime, just me and her? I want to catch up with her for real, hear about all the goings-on in town. Plus we’ll want to gossip about you. I know she’s dying for information.”

“Information like how I could spend eternity between your thighs?”

Scarlet giggled again. Wolf smiled. He would never say something like that if he weren’t ten minutes out from orgasm, but the heat he could feel radiating from Scarlet’s scandalized blush made him glad he did. “I’m not gonna lie, it may come up,” she warned archly.

“Will it make you happy?”

“Probably, unless she dumps coffee on my lap or something.”

“Then I’m happy.” Wolf could tell he was mumbling, slipping toward sleep.

“I’m happy, too. So, so happy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> R*wling is trash but I wanted to give Scarlet some familiar books, considering how much is actually still intact from the Second Era. I don't think they're, like, thousand-year-old copies, just that copies of the most printed books of our time would survive and get reprinted. HP are classics for the Rampion crew!


	4. Several Firsts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wolf is shy about seeking pleasure. Let's address that.
> 
> We get a special guest in this installment! I hope I did her justice.
> 
> Yes this is another ungodly combination of messy grief, painstakingly described farm business, and utterly chaotic sex, welcome to this fic I guess

Scarlet dug through the family files, kept in the bottom drawer of the sitting room desk, for Grand-mère’s birth certificate, the deed to the house, anything she could imagine she might need. She and Wolf got a hover into town, and when the clerk’s office opened at eight, they were the first people in the door.

It wasn’t as terrible as Scarlet had dreaded, declaring her grandma dead. Plenty of lives had been lost that horrible night in August; hers wasn’t the only family to be irrevocably changed. Scarlet’s eyewitness account was sufficient to get an official death certificate from the European Federation, especially since Michelle’s ID chip and bank account had seen no activity since. As they left the office, Scarlet, a little unsteady, kept her arm wrapped around Wolf’s hips.

Since they were in town, Scarlet thought it prudent to knock some things off the to-do list: they stopped in at the market to pick up a few things she forgot yesterday, then got a table at her favorite café to wait until the gun shop opened. While Wolf polished off a scone and a bowl of fruit, Scarlet took the opportunity to call the farmers from Émilie’s list and schedule times to retrieve her animals. She made faces at Wolf; she knew he could hear the strident voices on the other end of the line, exclaiming over her sudden celebrity and long-awaited return.

The gun shop took no time at all - Scarlet only bought the same model of pistol she’d had before. On the way back to the hover depot, they passed Émilie’s apartment, and Scarlet pointed it out to Wolf.

Then they were home, groceries and gun and documentation of Michelle Benoit’s life and death in their arms, and Scarlet found herself blinking in her own driveway. The whole morning had just passed in a moment, and she felt… not numb. Matter-of-fact. _I really have to get used to basic errands again_, she reflected without really considering it. _This is what it used to feel like, isn’t it? I just lived my life without having to think about what I was doing; isn’t this normal?_

And then another thought struck without warning: _Did I just think of finalizing Grand-mère’s death as an “errand”?_

Wolf was moving toward the house, and Scarlet hastened to follow.

* * *

Wolf was rummaging through the downstairs bathroom now, still on his mission to familiarize himself with the house. Scarlet was all for it, considering how she’d feel if their positions were reversed, if she were the newcomer in his mother’s house on Luna, determined to spend her life there. She wouldn’t be as conscientious about it as Wolf was, though; every drawer would fall victim to her pawing.

Scarlet shot off her message inviting Émilie out for girl talk, but found she didn’t want to put her port down. She still felt off-kilter from the morning, disturbed by the way her brain seemed to avoid and then lean into emotions she didn’t expect, shying like a horse.

She wanted to call Cinder.

_I can’t bother Cinder_, Scarlet tried to convince herself, but her thumb hovered over her contact anyway. Cinder had a level head, a wealth of experience dealing with a treacherous brain. Scarlet had come to admire Cinder’s centering effect on others, as steady as her hands. A mechanic through and through.

Before she could really talk herself out of it, Scarlet was comming the queen of Luna, shutting herself in Grand-mère’s office with the niggling thought of Wolf overhearing her jumbled emotions. It took a few rings, but Cinder actually picked up, the shoulders of her regal dress glittering through the screen in a statement Scarlet knew she hated.

“Scarlet? What’s up?”

As muddled as Scarlet felt, she had to smile. She hadn’t seen Cinder since November. “Hey,” she greeted softly. “Do you have a minute? I’m sure there must be committees and meetings and state visits all down your calendar, but… I needed to talk to someone.”

Cinder’s port was shifting in her hand; she was sitting down. “You think I wouldn’t love the opportunity to push any appointments so I could talk to you? As a matter of fact, I’m totally un-busy right now; I was just tweaking some of the climate control settings for the palace because I wanted to. I wish you’d called tomorrow so I could avoid this jewelry appraisal… well, it doesn’t matter. You wanted to talk?”

Scarlet copied Cinder in sitting down, pulling out Grand-mère’s old desk chair and propping the port upright against the computer monitor. With a sigh, she told Cinder, “We got my grandma’s death certificate today.”

Cinder’s brow furrowed. “Wow. I’m sorry, that must have been rough.”

“That’s the thing.” Scarlet shook her head, looking out the window as if making eye contact with Cinder would make the confession harder. “It wasn’t. I wasn’t thrilled, don’t get me wrong, but it was just so… businesslike. Just like that, it’s all over. Everything she did, her whole existence. It’s gotten me a little morbid,” she chuckled wryly. “I feel like all my emotions are tangled up together, and they cancel each other out so I actually don’t feel anything. I know, it’s been a while, and I’ve processed the worst of my grief, but… going to the clerk’s office today definitely struck a chord, but I don’t think it was the right one. It was just like a task on the to-do list. I didn’t even cry.”

Cinder had been nodding through Scarlet’s speech. When Scarlet was finished, Cinder replied, “It sounds to me like you’re moving on.”

That stung. Scarlet even gasped a little. “I was afraid of that,” she whispered.

“Maybe that was a bad choice of words,” Cinder amended, her eyes wide with alarm. “When I say ‘moving on,’ you’re not forgetting about her or closing a door on your past together. I meant… you’re healing. It’s not a bad thing that you didn’t cry today. You’ll always miss your grandma, but there’s nothing more you can do. She lived a really good life.”

“Yeah, she did,” Scarlet agreed. It was a sentiment that had been repeated at her for months now, from everyone from Wolf to the neighbor she’d called this morning to ask about her cows. Grand-mère _had_ lived a good life; Scarlet had never heard her complain about the living she had built for herself. It was her death Scarlet couldn’t let go of.

Cinder let out a little breath. “When I first got used to life here,” she gestured at the shining palace walls around her, “and a little bit of space in my brain got freed up from the near-constant fear of death - you remember - ” Scarlet chuckled - “I had… a total meltdown over Peony. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to cry so badly in my life. And then I stopped thinking about it for a while, but her birthday was last month, and I suddenly realized I hadn’t thought about her for months. When you were just describing how you felt today, that was exactly how it was for me. Iko and I recognized her birthday, but I felt guilty that there wasn’t more fanfare for it, and then I felt guilty for not feeling worse about that. But that guilt doesn’t help anything, it won’t bring them back. We have the lives they helped us build, and we have to keep carrying their legacy on. Especially you, farm heiress.”

“You’re right,” Scarlet conceded, “you’re right, I know you are. I think I’m still not used to being home again, and it’s bringing up so many conflicting memories that I didn’t have to face when I was with you guys. When it was just me and Grand-mère, it was _just_ me and Grand-mère, you know? That was so nice on our good days, but it was also a burden, in hindsight. If I let her go, who will keep her memory?”

“Well, for one, me,” Cinder pointed out. “Your grandma saved my life, Scarlet! I wish I had gotten to know her in a real way, but I don’t need to remember who she was to feel her effect on my life. She did what she set out to do by taking me in, and I hope she knows that, wherever she is now.”

“Thanks, Cinder.” Knowing that she felt this way about Grand-mère really was a relief to Scarlet. “What _I_ hope she can see is all the work I’m about to put into this place. I’m going to make her proud.”

“Yeah you are,” Cinder declared emphatically. “How long have you been home? What do you have to do?”

Scarlet gave Cinder the full recap; how unexpectedly hard it was to remember what foods to keep in stock, all the documentation from Émilie she’d had to sift through, the seemingly Scarlet-centered town rumor mill she’d picked up whispers of. She didn’t go too far into the details of the farm cleanup and repairs on her horizon, certain that Cinder wouldn’t have a frame of reference, but she extolled Wolf’s virtues for a while, speculating on all the dirty jobs he’d excel at when the time arose.

Almost on cue, Wolf knocked on the office door. “Come on in,” Scarlet called, picking up her port. “I’m just catching up with Cinder.”

Scarlet turned in the chair, and Wolf crouched in order for them to share the camera frame. Cinder waved happily. “Hey, big guy,” the queen of Luna beamed. “How do you like your new place?”

“It’s perfect,” Wolf replied without hesitation. Scarlet had to tamp down her own beaming grin.

“Scarlet was just telling me about all the improvements she wants to make.”

“Not so much improvements, more like maintenance,” Scarlet corrected. “What about your new stomping grounds? You said you were messing with the climate controls. I love how Cinder that decision is; very hands-on.”

“You know I’m all about direct action,” Cinder corroborated dryly. “Remember that jewelry appraisal tomorrow?” She lowered her voice to a whisper, though she looked to be alone in the room. “Yeah, I’m selling my dead mom’s and aunt’s jewels. I certainly don’t want them,” she continued in a normal voice, “and I’m going to direct the proceeds to the outer sectors. I know it’s a big moon, but I don’t love how long it takes to make some economic changes. Hopefully I can give disadvantaged sectors a personal boost by getting rid of all this crap no one needs.”

“This is so cool, Cinder,” Scarlet marveled. “Even if you weren’t the legitimate heir, you clearly belong on this throne.”

Cinder rolled her eyes. “Enjoy it while it lasts,” she urged. “It’s not exactly my dream job, but I’ll do my best while I’m here to do it.”

“Your best is pretty good,” Wolf affirmed. “Luna got lucky with you.”

“Thanks. I should probably go - Iko will figure out which maintenance room I’m hiding in soon enough and have my head for tinkering in such a fine gown.”

“You should sell those too,” Scarlet suggested. “What’s she going to do, depose you?”

“Unfortunately, she has the experience to know how to do so.” They all shared a laugh, and Cinder pushed her bangs out of her eyes. “It was good to see you guys. Talk again soon?”

“Absolutely,” Wolf nodded.

“Bye.” Scarlet ended the comm and set her portscreen down. “You know what?” she said to Wolf. “I don’t think I realized until now that you don’t have your own port. We walked right past the shop in town today and I didn’t think twice. We should get you one.”

“Maybe later,” Wolf reasoned. “It’s not high on my priority list.”

“Oh? What _is_ on this priority list?”

Wolf’s arms were folded comfortably against his chest. He pursed his lips in thought for a second. “Admittedly, whatever’s on _your_ priority list. The farm, for a start. I can get tech toys after things get more settled.”

“If Cress ever heard you call a portscreen a toy…” Scarlet stepped close to Wolf and dropped a kiss on his top folded forearm. “But, you read my mind. How about some lunch, and then we can get to work.”

* * *

Scarlet had changed into her big overalls and piled her hair on top of her head; poor Wolf only had his usual clothes, but he put on his least pristine shirt, pants, and shoes without complaint. Scarlet made a mental note to get him some farm clothes as soon as possible, on top of that portscreen - she loved spending time with him, but they couldn’t be in the same place at all times to share a port. They had pulled out as many tools as Scarlet could think of and were now standing in front of the barn door, surrounded by wheelbarrows, hoses, pitchforks, brooms, nearly a dozen buckets, and several varieties of disinfectant and detergent. Scarlet clapped her gloved hands and slid the door aside.

“Okay, let’s get the muck out,” she directed. Grabbing a pitchfork each, she and Wolf began prying up the old, dry straw on the ground, stuck together with mud, milk, and, it had to be said, dung. Filling wheelbarrows with it, Scarlet hauled each load to the compost heap, which had been thoroughly turned in order to aerate it again. Wolf didn’t seem to have a problem with the barn’s smell, which luckily was only musty to Scarlet’s insensitive nose.

With a clear floor, it was time to hose down the barn. Scarlet turned the adjustable sprayer head to the highest water pressure it allowed and positively blasted the walls, the floor, the windowsills. Wolf pushed open the big side door for the dirty water to flow out; the windows had already been open when they came in, which meant they had probably been open all winter. Hopefully the snows weren’t too bad. Scarlet rinsed the windowsills and let the gunk drip down the outer wall.

They roused several swarms of flies with the jets from the hoses, but if the pressurized water didn’t get rid of them, the disinfectant would. Once the whole barn was dripping and sparkling in the sunny patches, Wolf coiled his hose up, but Scarlet turned hers to a milder setting and gave him a cheeky spray. Wolf shot her a look of mild betrayal, but Scarlet just made it obvious that she was ogling the way his shirt stuck to his body and he went pink.

“Ah - do _not_ kiss me,” she cautioned when he made to lean down. “We don’t know what bacteria we’ve just blasted into the air.”

Scarlet made Wolf test the integrity of each wall and support beam with his hardest shove - if any of them failed, she didn’t know what she would have done, but luckily they didn’t need to worry about it; everything held. Scarlet brought out the ladder and filled two of the buckets with soapy water.

They worked their way from the back of the barn to the entrance, Scarlet washing the top half of the walls from atop her ladder and Wolf washing the bottom. It was slow going, and Scarlet was sore by the end of the back wall, but seeing the contrast between it and the adjoining wall was so satisfying. They had to take a few breaks, but Scarlet and Wolf got it done. Soap suds ringed the drain in the middle of the barn, but they were overwhelmed by another wave of water from the hoses, rinsed out the door. Scarlet made sure to scrub and rinse the feed troughs as well, though her arm muscles were screaming.

“Let’s take a break,” she wheezed, stretching her arms overhead. Wolf took the buckets, emptied them into the driveway, and even rinsed them out with the hose while Scarlet spilled herself onto the soft grass and flung her achy limbs as wide as she could. The sweat on her face and under her arms made her shiver when the breeze blew over her.

“How are you doing?” Wolf loomed over her face, upside-down.

“I’ll make it out alive. I just need to let my arms rest so they don’t fall off my shoulders.”

“Well, as much as I prefer your limbs attached to you, that wasn’t what I meant.” Wolf lay down next to her and scooted around in the grass until their heads were level. “You were very quiet this morning at the clerk’s. I get that. I just want to check in with how you’re feeling.”

Scarlet looked across the few inches of grass into Wolf’s beautiful eyes, a contrasting shade of green. She preferred his eyes. “Better. I think I was too far in my head this morning. But I’m out of it now.”

Wolf grasped her hand, both still gloved. He began to raise it, but stopped halfway up, a look of consternation on his face that told Scarlet he had intended to kiss her knuckles like he loved to do. She laughed lightly and said, “Don’t. It’s not worth potentially contracting foot-and-mouth.”

“I’m not used to stopping myself from kissing you,” Wolf complained.

“You went most of your life without it,” Scarlet reminded him. “You can last an afternoon in the grimy barn.”

“Maybe, but I don’t want to,” he grumbled.

She shook her head at his dramatics and sat up. “Break’s over,” she declared. “Only one more step to a sparkly clean barn.” Wolf took her hand to pull himself up, but he pouted until they were back in the building.

Scarlet took her time diluting the disinfectant in the buckets, trying to give the barn more time to air-dry. The far side of the barn would definitely be ready by now, but she didn’t want to catch up to the still-damp walls. They went back to it in the same arrangement as before: Scarlet high, Wolf low. If there was one thing Wolf was good at (there wasn’t; he was good at many things), it was cleaning, but after ten minutes or so in the astringent smell of the disinfectant, his eyes were watering. He ran inside and came back out genuinely clamping his nose shut with a laundry clothespin.

“I can just do this myself, you know,” Scarlet pressed, but Wolf wouldn’t hear of it. By the time they were finished with the whole building and he stepped outside to unclip his nose, it had left a nasty impression on the skin. Scarlet sent him inside to press some ice on it and moved all the tools they’d used over to the chicken coop.

While she was out here, Scarlet hauled open the hangar door and climbed gingerly into the delivery ship, careful not to sit on any glass shards, though the treated glass of hover windows was supposed to shatter blunt. She steered the vehicle into the driveway oh-so-gingerly, skirting around the massive oil stain and scatter of tools still on the concrete floor. The mechanic was coming tomorrow, and she just didn’t have the wherewithal today to clean up this mess on top of the barn and coop.

Scarlet went back to the chicken coop, which had been built with a half-door, one that could be opened and closed just with the bottom half (for the chickens) or latched together to open as one unit (for the people). That way, she didn’t have to make herself very small as she scraped out cobwebs, shed feathers, dust, and droppings. She hosed out the enclosure, propped the windows open (why did chickens need windows? She’d never asked) while she mixed a vinegar solution together, and went back at it with her poor abused arms. It would all be worth it in the end.

Feeling accomplished, Scarlet reminded herself to get fresh wood shavings for the chicken run while she toted the muck to the compost heap and the dirty bucket to the driveway. She sloshed the vinegar solution over the gravel, then noticed the big outdoor trash bin next to the delivery ship. As she watched, Wolf leaned out of the cab and a rain of glass shards fell into the bin.

Scarlet jogged along the crunching gravel until she reached the ship, ducked quickly under Wolf’s arm mid-reach, and squeezed him in a hug. “Thank you. I’m glad your nose isn’t burned or squeezed off.”

Wolf embedded his nose in Scarlet’s hair, which she always found funny, but not enough to laugh at him. “Nose is fine,” he reported warmly, having secured a big whiff of her scent.

“I’m going to make dinner. Would you close the barn doors and windows and the chicken coop before you come in, please?”

“Of course.”

* * *

One dinner and a well-deserved shower later, Scarlet leaned on the doorjamb to the bedroom, messaging Émilie about their plans to meet up tomorrow while her eyes flicked to the bathroom door every few seconds, anticipation building in her legs.

The shower stopped running, and Scarlet set her portscreen on her desk, where it could charge. She heard the bathroom door open and hurried out of the room before Wolf could make it far. Crowding into his space until he was backed against the wall, she rose on her toes to kiss him. Noticing as she pressed herself against him that he was still wet from the shower, shirtless, and probably equally bare under the towel wrapped around his waist, in that order, Scarlet shivered. Wolf made a contented sort of noise in his throat, his hand cradling her jaw.

“Sorry you had to wait to kiss me,” Scarlet murmured against his lips.

Wolf raised an eyebrow. “Seems to me like _you’re_ the one who couldn’t wait another minute.”

Scarlet grinned; she loved it when he was bold. “Can I help it that you’re irresistible?”

Just as quickly as his confidence had risen, Scarlet was dismayed to see Wolf’s eyelids flutter with sudden self-consciousness. He fixed his eyes on her lips, but she knew that was so he didn’t have to meet her eyes. Scarlet had a choice to make, she realized, about how to proceed. She was almost positive Wolf would allow her to do what she wanted, but of course there was no way she would do it if he had to be convinced. On the other hand, his denial of his own desire was kind of the problem. She had had to work hard to get him in bed in the first place, but once he let himself succumb to what he wanted, they had both made it worth the surrender.

For now, she decided, she would try to get that desire rolling. She kissed him again, the lingering wetness on his chest seeping into her sleep shirt. Wolf didn’t put up any protest, but it was still a few minutes before Scarlet let her hands start to wander, brushing up his strong arms, scratching gently at the thick hair covering his chest, making goosebumps rise. It was no secret that Wolf was ashamed of his modified body, and though Scarlet understood his feelings, she hoped that when he was with her, he felt beautiful. Even when she didn’t yet trust him, she had never viewed him any other way.

When Scarlet walked her fingers down his torso to caress his defined muscles, Wolf disengaged from her lips with a gasp. He kissed a line down her neck and, upon reaching the collar of her shirt, attempted to shove it aside with his nose to continue kissing. “Stars, Scarlet,” he rasped. A little bead of water fell from his hair onto her bared shoulder. “What are you doing?”

“Do you want me to stop?”

He nudged the hollow of her throat with his nose. “No. Never,” he said with a hopeless chuckle.

Scarlet placed her hands on his hips, the soft towel contrasting with his warm skin. “Wolf.” He had definitely noticed, his next glance at her a bit more guarded. “Can I take this off?” she asked softly.

Wolf’s shoulders raised the barest inch, as if to protect himself from her, and in that moment Scarlet wanted to call Thorne, steal the Rampion, push it past the speed of light to go backwards in time, and absolutely ruin every person who ever made this man think that he was unworthy of tenderness, unworthy of love, unworthy of humanity. “Why?” he asked, trying to make himself small.

“The short answer is that I love you and I want to make you feel as good as you do to me.” Scarlet moved her hands from the towel to his bare skin, hoping to ease the anxiety in his eyes. “I’ll try to explain better, though. I know we’re both new to this sex business, but I have noticed that while you _thoroughly_ take care of me - and it is _much_ appreciated - ” she emphasized - “you’ve barely given me a chance to look at your cock, let alone touch it.”

“You don’t need to do that,” Wolf blurted, almost before she finished her sentence.

“You don’t need to eat me out every day, but you seem to enjoy it,” Scarlet countered. “And again, I enjoy it too. I want to return the favor, Wolf.” She laid a gentle kiss in the middle of his chest, at her eye level. “To be very clear, I never want to do anything that you’re not one hundred percent comfortable with. I won’t even look at it if you’d rather I don’t. But…” She teased two fingers at the edge of the towel, directly above the bulge distorting it. “If you’re willing to let me try some things, I’ll do my very best. You’ve been so careful with me.”

Wolf actually gulped; Scarlet was looking down at her fingers, suspecting that he’d be mortified if she looked up and saw any fear on his face, so she allowed herself a smirk at the situation she found herself in, practically begging to touch his dick. If the Scarlet from last August could see her now…

One of Wolf’s big hands appeared and stopped her hand’s movement. He held her to his stomach, curving his fingers around to hold her hand still, and she tried not to be too disappointed. Maybe she could broach the topic again in a few weeks - but finally, his other hand took hold of the fold in the towel and let it drop to the floor.

As much as she wanted to ogle, Scarlet had to make sure they were on the same page first. She looked up at his face, trying not to smile too manically, and took a moment to mentally catalog his heightened color, his wide but serious eyes, the way he was visibly schooling his breathing. “Are you sure?” she asked him clearly. “Don’t let me do anything just because I asked to. Do you want me to?”

Wolf had some trouble asking for things he wanted, Scarlet knew, but he was trying valiantly. “Scarlet,” he choked out, his thumb rubbing the heel of her hand. “Please.”

She inclined her head to kiss him again, grateful for his communication. “Thank you for trusting me,” she acknowledged, and Wolf let out a shaky breath. “If you don’t like what I’m doing, or need me to stop, please tell me.”

Scarlet took him in her hand, still gazing up at his face, all the better to ease him in. She’d never done this herself, but it wasn’t like she had no idea what to do; she had been browsing the net since childhood, after all, and several of her friends had had partners at one time or another and didn’t keep quiet about them. Scarlet wasn’t expecting a handjob to be the easiest thing in the world, but she was going to try her hardest.

Wolf really must not have dried off after the shower at all; Scarlet found actual drops of water still lingering on his cock. At least she wouldn’t have to use her own saliva - there was no way she was stopping to find lotion. It was so warm, and his skin so soft. Scarlet wanted to watch eventually, but for now she was content to guide Wolf’s face down to hers with her other hand. She kissed him as she stroked, and the feeling of his dick hardening further in her own hand was heady. She gave her hand a slow twist, and a groan fell from Wolf’s lips.

“How’m I doing?” Scarlet inquired.

“Amazing,” Wolf hissed, three syllables seemingly an effort. Scarlet smiled smugly as his head fell back against the wall.

Knowing that he liked when she talked during sex was another weapon in her arsenal. “I’m so happy you let me do this,” she reiterated, her voice low. “I’ve been wanting to get my hands on you, but you’re always too busy licking me up… fucking so deep into me…”

Wolf’s face was a deep pink, and he had begun to pant for breath. She really didn’t want to make fun, but it was undeniable how easy it was for her to get Wolf turned on. His erection was pulsing. “You’re so gorgeous, Wolf,” Scarlet purred, running her thumb over the head, picking up some moisture. Wolf let out a broken moan, eyes reflexively closed. Scarlet finally indulged herself in a good eyeful of what she was doing, watching her hand pump while fluid leaked from his tip. His darker skin was so beautiful against her pale hand. “Wolf?”

“Scarlet,” he breathed; she could tell it was in answer.

“Do you want me to use my mouth?”

Wolf’s blush deepened, and he fumbled for her face, awkwardly trying to bend down without losing the contact from Scarlet’s hand. He kissed her soundly, making her smile against his lips. “Is that a yes?” she persisted.

“Oh, please,” Wolf confirmed. “Please.”

“You’re so polite when you’re hard,” Scarlet teased, leaving one more kiss on his cheek before pulling her hand away and shaking her arm out. After scrubbing the barn and now this, she’d better have bulging biceps tomorrow.

Scarlet took to her knees, looking an erect penis in the face for the first time in her life. It shone from tip to base with its own lubrication, which she assumed meant she’d done a thorough job. Wolf’s breaths were rattling above her; not wanting to waste any more time, Scarlet opened her mouth and let his cock stretch her lips, and she was pretty sure he stopped breathing altogether.

The one thing that had been well and truly impressed upon Scarlet during those chats with her friends was to cover her teeth, and she thought she was doing a pretty good job of that. Unfortunately, she was not going to be able to fit his entire length in her mouth, as she realized after a few bobs in and out, but on the bright side, Wolf did not seem to mind a bit. His legs were shaking, and she did her best to steady him, framing his hips with her hands, relishing the curve of his behind. After a minute or so, his upper body collapsed against the wall behind him, but he didn’t tell her to stop what she was doing, so she took it as a good sign. This wasn’t her absolute favorite thing to do with her mouth, so far, but the feeling that she had Wolf, strongest deadliest fighter, at her mercy like this was honestly intoxicating.

She pulled her mouth away, just for a few seconds, but the despairing sigh Wolf made at the loss of contact sent a bolt of arousal between her legs. “Will you talk for me?” she requested, then went back to it. So far he had been reserved in the bedroom, for the most part, but those moments when he let his mouth run fueled her desire. She wanted to hear him falling apart.

“Um,” Wolf stammered. “This is - _ungh_ \- stars, I love you, Scarlet, thank you for… oh, your mouth…”

His dick was twitching in her mouth, and Scarlet hummed absentmindedly. Wolf laughed shakily; she tapped on his hip, hoping he would continue talking his way through, but instead he looked down, caught her eye, and went pale. “Stop, stop, stop,” he babbled, and Scarlet pulled back in alarm.

“I’m sorry, Wolf, sorry,” she chanted over him, standing and reaching out to put a hand on his arm but recoiling just in time.

“No,” Wolf panted, taking her hovering hand and holding it to his chest. “That was… incredible. I was… well, I didn’t…” He finally looked at her again, color back in his cheeks. “Looking at you like that, I nearly finished right then.”

“Oh.” Scarlet had never… concluded anyone like that, but she’d gamely assumed she could spit it out or swallow it as the moment was upon her. “Did you not want to?”

Wolf laughed in a hollow sort of way. “I wanted to. But making it all go into your mouth…? It didn’t seem right.”

Scarlet shrugged. “Why not? Wolf, you swallow my come all the time.”

Wolf flushed bright red again and had to look up. “Don’t _say_ that, Scarlet, aces and spades. Can we… can we go back to your hand?”

Grinning broadly, Scarlet pulled the hand she was still holding to her lips and peppered kisses all over it. “We certainly can, thank you for _asking_,” she gloated.

She watched his face again as she worked him, trying to memorize his reactions. She tried several things to make the experience more interesting, but the one that finished the job was when she ran her nails along his length. Wolf came with a shout, again collapsing against the wall as he emptied himself, mostly onto Scarlet’s front. When he raised his head to look at her, he was mortified.

“Oh, no, Scarlet…” he trailed off in dismay.

“What do you think this is, a ball gown?” Scarlet reasoned, gesturing at the ratty tee shirt she used as pajamas. “Don’t worry, I knew what I was getting myself into. Besides, wouldn’t you rather I _not_ have it on?” She pulled the top off, using the discarded towel still at Wolf’s feet to rub away the worst of the stain. While she was still holding it, she toweled away the remaining fluid from Wolf’s penis, leaning up for a kiss.

“I need to sit down. Spades…” Wolf muttered, shuffling into the bedroom while Scarlet laughed. She tossed the dirtied shirt and towel into the laundry hamper and turned the hall light off. Wolf was sitting on the bed, but as soon as Scarlet went to the dresser to get herself a new sleep shirt, he was behind her, pushing the drawer closed.

“You’re right,” he murmured in her ear, “I do prefer you without a shirt on.”

“Aren’t you done yet?” Scarlet asked archly, pleasantly surprised by his turn of mood. As soon as he was thinking of getting _her_ off, the sultry flirtiness was back. Oh, well, it would be no chore for her to get him to associate this attitude with _his_ pleasure…

Wolf kissed the skin behind her ear, making her hum. “I like to do things in a certain order,” he pointed out.

“I’ve noticed,” Scarlet informed him, turning around. “Are you insinuating that you like my taste?”

She watched his eyes darken. “More than any other.”

Scarlet turned to walk toward the bed, looking at him over her shoulder. “I thought yours was pretty unforgettable, myself.”

With a strangled groan, Wolf rushed to catch her again, the backs of her knees pressing into the bed with the force of his contact. He kissed her absolutely silly, one hand framing her face while his other splayed against her back, trapping the ends of her hair. “Smelling your need while you did all those things to me,” Wolf growled against her cheek, “it nearly drove me insane.”

Putting a gentle hand on his chest, Scarlet was able to pull away. “You can _smell_ it?” she repeated. “I don’t know why I’m surprised, really. That’s… embarrassing.”

“Why?” Wolf furrowed his brow. “You have the advantage of being able to see mine. Though not at the moment, I’m afraid,” he added - Scarlet was peeking down between his legs anyway - and continued apologetically, “I don’t think we’ll be able to end tonight together like we usually do.”

“Hm… sounds like a challenge to me,” Scarlet mused. She linked her arms around Wolf’s neck to begin devouring his mouth again. If he was going to be able to smell how much she wanted him, then he very well might suffocate in it tonight. “Do you think you can keep your hands to yourself for five minutes?” she ventured.

Wolf’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Is this going to be anything good for me?”

“Depends on how you look at it,” Scarlet shrugged. She shucked off her sleep shorts, leaving Wolf to gape at the knowledge that all this time, she hadn’t been wearing any underwear. “It may be torture for you, especially toward the end. But if you approach it another way, I’m giving you a hell of a show.” She clambered backwards onto the bed, feeling terrifically bold, spread her legs, and put her fingers to work.

Wolf groaned right away, a mixture of that’s-not-fair and I-wish-that-were-me. “I did tell you that I knew how to take care of myself on the ship,” Scarlet reminded him, wasting no time in inserting a finger while her thumb danced around her hood. She wanted to see how far gone she could get herself before Wolf’s time was up - and she knew he’d be keeping a soldier’s accurate time in his head.

Moaning a little for show, she kept her eyes closed; this was certainly bringing her back to when her fingers were all she had, and it was easier to put herself in the right headspace when the only Wolf she had was imaginary. Still, knowing that the real Wolf was somewhere in the room made her feel like he was everywhere, somehow, an exhilarating addition. A second finger and she moaned for real.

“I hated when you left my room,” she spoke up for Wolf’s benefit. This little exercise was to get him excited again, after all. “It must have been every other night that I had to finish myself off like this. Of course, I couldn’t call out your name, couldn’t make too much noise.” She was never as quick as this, though, she knew. Having Wolf waiting for her on the other end of this five minutes had her mind racing… “Oh, I can’t wait for you to fill me up. My fingers are too small now.” As if to emphasize her point, she gave herself the third. “I’m already so spoiled by your big fingers, your cock - ”

A hand around her wrist pulled her fingers out of herself, and Wolf was above her again, cutting her words off with a searing kiss. He inserted his own finger; her walls clenched around him, seeking friction. Even with his large digits, one was not the same size as her three. “Time’s up,” Wolf breathed. “You didn’t mention my tongue.”

Shoving himself down the bed, Wolf planted his face between her legs and positively feasted. Scarlet yelped. She was so close already that she was trembling, but Wolf still had time to switch his finger for his tongue and use the finger to establish a rhythm on her clit. When she came, Scarlet was adrift in a lapping sea, and the waves were Wolf’s tongue.

“Come here,” Scarlet huffed, coming down. “How’d I do?” she asked when Wolf had dragged himself level with her face again.

He laughed sheepishly. “A little too well. I just spent five minutes being ragingly jealous of the ceiling of your Rampion quarters.” Scarlet snickered. “I have made a full recovery,” he added, to which Scarlet pumped her fists above her head in triumph, and he rolled his eyes. “You’re ridiculous.”

“_You’re_ ridiculous if you think I’m letting a perfectly good erection go to waste,” Scarlet shot back, reaching down with the hand that had so recently been inside her, still slick with fluid. Wolf sighed happily while she ministered to him again. She felt full of sunlight and eager for more. “Lie on your back,” she instructed while she got up to her knees.

“Scarlet?”

Wolf’s cock stood on its own, just waiting for her. “I’ve been wondering about this way,” she chatted, slinging a leg over Wolf’s torso.

“It’s a night of firsts,” Wolf commented hoarsely, not able to take his eyes off of her scooting back until she was lined up properly.

“I’m going to go slow,” Scarlet warned him. “Tell me if I should stop.”

Wolf nodded and caressed her bent knee tenderly.

Scarlet sank down onto him, the sensation intrusive and overwhelming. Wolf threw his head back into the pillows at first, but once Scarlet had taken about half of his length, he snapped forward to watch himself disappearing into her body, and her legs began to shake. The way Wolf watched her in bed was so intense that sometimes she feared she might burn away.

“All right?” Wolf ground out when she was fully seated; he reached up to brush a curl from her face.

Scarlet nodded, ignoring the ache for how good it felt. Taking her time, she rose up a few inches and let her weight bring her back down again. Wolf was already moaning, his so-recently-washed skin shining with sweat again.

Scarlet found her rhythm, still not terribly fast, but certainly effective; with every stroke she realized just how far Wolf penetrated her in this position, and when she could make sound again, it was low and tremulous.

“So beautiful,” Wolf mumbled. Scarlet stirred a little, spurred on by his praise. Leaning forward to brace her arms on his torso, she was suddenly bumping her clit against him on every descent, and she cried out.

“Scarlet? Scarlet, look at me.” She met his shining eyes, he took her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Are you good?”

Scarlet nodded. “It’s so much,” she whimpered. “It’s everything.”

Wolf moved his hands to her hips, and now he was doing half the work of raising and lowering Scarlet on his dick; with the increased speed, Scarlet got closer and closer to release until yet another brush of her clit sent her over the edge. Wolf hadn’t even hit his stride yet, it seemed, and he laughed as she folded herself onto his chest, rocking with him as he continued uninterrupted. “What do you think? One more in you?”

“Only if you can get me there again before you finish,” Scarlet answered idly, taking a second too long to realize she was throwing down a gauntlet.

Now it was a race, Scarlet swiveling her hips on Wolf’s while he attempted to lavish her breasts, conveniently in his face, with attention. He kissed up her neck until she was gasping, and she sucked his fingers into her mouth, giving special attention to the one that had stimulated her earlier.

Wolf’s hips began to buck erratically, but he ended up with the last laugh - her clit sang as he sped circles around it, and as she fell apart around him, he gave her a sweet kiss just before he came inside her already-drenched canal.

They couldn’t even move, lying in a circle of sweat on the sheets while Wolf stroked Scarlet’s hair.

“I take it I should just give up on wearing pajamas to bed,” Scarlet wheezed.

“That’ll probably save us laundry soap.”


	5. Flying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess what? It's my BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! Here is my present from me to you, short and sweet. Hope you like it!

The mechanic came to the farm in the morning, driving a ship taller and longer than Scarlet’s due to the new window she had to tote. Wolf watched from the doorstep as Scarlet chatted with the mechanic, amiably laughing at some comment about her ship that Wolf didn’t have the experience to understand. When they beckoned him over to help fit the new pane in the shattered hole, he made sure to take the brunt of the weight, his strength one of the only things about his body he was thankful for.

Before she left, the mechanic had Scarlet test out some of the ship’s functions - “After all, you haven’t flown her for a long time” - and, upon discovering two failures, insisted on performing the services free of charge.

“What? No, we’ll pay you,” Scarlet protested.

“Miss Benoit, please,” the mechanic doubled down. “My aunt had letumosis. It’s the least I can do.”

At an impasse, Scarlet hunched in the pilot’s seat, clearly dissatisfied. She was adorable. Wolf watched her fondly from where he leaned on the outside of the ship while she toggled settings at the mechanic’s direction.

The mechanic left (and Scarlet _did_ pay for the back window), and Scarlet patted the passenger seat. “Hop in! She’s right, I haven’t flown in a while. Let’s take her for a test run.”

“Why is it always ‘her’?” Wolf asked, hunching to slide in. This ship’s dimensions were not exactly Rampion-level, but he could sit up straight in the seat, which was a relief.

“I don’t really know,” Scarlet mused. “Personally, I just like it. This old girl’s like a friend to me.” She rubbed the instrument panel affectionately, as if to ruffle the ship’s hair. “Seatbelts,” she instructed before making any more moves.

Belted in safely, Scarlet pulled out into the street. Stars knew Wolf was comfortable flying, but being in a new vehicle took a little bit of adjusting, especially considering that the pilot hadn’t flown it in months. After a few minutes of banking up and down the road, Scarlet seemed comfortable, her little bumps and swerves evening out into a confidently smooth ride.

“I’ve been thinking,” Scarlet announced, reaching a cross-street and stopping before making the turn.

Wolf looked at her expectantly. “That’s a good habit.”

Scarlet’s deadpan face was belied by her sweet freckles. “Good one. I was going to say that I should teach you how to fly.”

Wolf blinked. “Fly?”

“Yeah, fly the ship. I can’t teach you how to flap your arms and get off the ground, you’re on your own there.”

He was taken aback, but it was certainly a skill Wolf knew it would be practical to have. All those months on the Rampion with only Scarlet and Thorne taking turns in the pilot’s seat… If they ever got into a scrape again, Wolf might need to know how to fly a ship that, notably, didn’t have its own Darla to autopilot. “Okay. That’s a good idea.”

“Yeah?” Scarlet grinned. “Let me find a good spot.”

She touched down in an out-of-the-way field, Rieux just visible on the horizon from where they parked. They switched seats; Wolf watched her ponytail bounce as they crossed around the ship’s nose.

Scarlet dug the manual out of a compartment and flipped through it while Wolf tried to take in what he could of the pilot’s array. He was a quick study, and he’d spent time with Scarlet and Thorne in the cockpit while they’d flown the Rampion, but a lot of the buttons and switches were totally unfamiliar to him.

Scarlet held the manual open to the pages with diagrams while she pointed out the functions around the steering yoke. There were signals for turning, altitude controls, round buttons to control all the mirrors in the cabin, speed gauges and mileage gauges and fuel gauges. He got the hang of those pretty quickly. Then Scarlet realized he needed to adjust his seat, and they had quite the time tweaking every setting that could possibly affect Wolf’s visibility.

“So you’re definitely making me fly this today,” Wolf confirmed.

“Why not? The day is young.”

“I don’t want to crash your ship after it’s just been fixed so nicely,” Wolf warned halfheartedly.

Scarlet smacked him lightly on the chest. “You? Crash? A soldier with perfect balance and control? I don’t think so.”

Wolf’s chest warmed, and he took the smacking hand to kiss it. “What if I get distracted?” he murmured, the question loaded.

Scarlet laughed once through her nose. “Eyes out the window,” she chided, but her blush had betrayed her yet again. Wolf tried not to smirk.

He turned the ship back on, and Scarlet instructed him to let it idle, no applied speed or height. At the absolute minimum speed, Wolf made several turns, practiced stopping, and generally got his bearings. With Scarlet’s blessing, he tried harder turns and harder brakes, testing his reflexes for his own peace of mind. Being able to react in his own body was one thing, but getting heavy machinery to do the same things was going to take some practice.

“Want to get some height?” Scarlet probed. “Nothing too crazy, just enough to get a feel for the air.”

“Let’s do it.”

Before Wolf knew it, he had gotten them airborne, something he had never even thought about accomplishing until this very morning. It was a wobbly hold, but there he was, flying a ship himself. The controls seemed to be more sensitive on the ground than in the air, as Wolf realized when he tried to move forward gingerly and couldn’t get a response until he pressed harder, making the craft shoot across the field. Scarlet shouted, but it was tinged with laughter, so Wolf paid it no mind.

“Give me some directions?” he requested.

Scarlet had him do basically the same maneuvers as on the ground, slowly turning, braking, reversing, but this time he had to take balance into account. Suspended in the air, the faster he went, the less precise he could be.

“You’ll get used to it with more practice,” Scarlet reasoned on a wide turn. “Eventually I’ll have you banking, and that’ll make turns more manageable. It took me a year or so to learn all the skills required for my license.”

Wolf cocked his head, feeling daring. “Maybe, but I have the advantage of a remarkable teacher.” He coaxed the ship forward yet again, picking up speed.

“What are you doing?” Scarlet was trying to exude nonchalance, but Wolf could hear her heartbeat picking up. They were pointed toward the wooded edge of the field, the trees getting closer.

“Trying something,” was all he said in response, keeping his focus on what he was doing. Picking up a new skill, something _practical_, was much better than trying to make nice with new people, Wolf reflected. He was capable, had razor-sharp senses and a keen memory. Compared to coming to Rieux last summer, trying to make his way in a strange town with strange people, flying a hovering machine that could kill him if operated incorrectly was a piece of cake. Besides, Scarlet was in the ship. He wouldn’t let even his own boundary-testing hurt her in any way.

Scarlet’s knuckles on the door handle whitened as the trees loomed. Just as the branches in front of them seemed likely to burst through the window, Wolf veered, and the ship responded as he wanted it to, at last, tipping sideways so that the passenger side was pointing to the ground as he executed the turn. The only destruction was that of a few leaves breaking from their branches.

Wolf let the speed dwindle until they had stopped again, hanging in the air. “I can bank,” he announced, satisfied.

“Uh-huh, you sure can.” Scarlet’s voice was a little off, her eyes fixed forward through the window. “Go ahead and take her down.”

Wolf let the ship sink to the ground again, getting the feeling that today’s lesson was over. He shouldn’t have pulled that stunt, but he had known he could do it… it was all a matter of proving it to himself. Maybe he should have saved it for a time he could take the ship out on his own instead of scaring Scarlet with it. Wolf switched the vehicle off with a sinking feeling, unbuckled his seatbelt.

All of a sudden Scarlet was clambering over the console in the middle of the seats and pushing his face toward hers, and her scent was all around him, stunning him as their lips crashed together. She was on her knees, giving her the height advantage, and Wolf was hyperaware of her thumb pressing into his jaw, tilting it up. No matter how many days he spent with this woman, she always managed to send his head spinning with the slightest touch.

Her touch wasn’t slight now, to be fair. She kissed the corner of his mouth, down his throat, her sentence eking out in between. “That - was so - sexy - Wolf - stars.”

“Turning?” Wolf clarified stupidly.

Scarlet halted her assault on his senses for long enough to reply. “You’ve _never_ flown before and you just… did it like _that_,” she snapped her fingers. “Whew, that… really did it for me.”

Wolf guided her face back to his, his brain already whirring with fantastical nonsense: they could just live in the ship, he’d fly them all over the town so he could always have Scarlet look at him like _that_, full of promise and desire. If exciting stunts made her want to climb onto him and kiss him for dear life… _Calm down_, the rational part of his brain chimed in. _She wants you anyway, with or without potential property damage_.

His inner distraction was cut off at the sensation of Scarlet’s hand on his groin. Memories of the night before, when Scarlet had ambushed him in the middle of the hall, like she couldn’t wait the few seconds between him and their room, gave him a wave of frisson, and his dick was already getting hard. With a shaky breath, Wolf pulled himself from Scarlet’s lips, noticing how she leaned forward to chase him.

Before she could get her way and continue kissing him, Wolf hissed, “You want to do this _here?_”

“Why not?” Scarlet rasped, her eyes hooded. “I want you.”

“Spades, Scarlet, I know, but shouldn’t we get somewhere a little… roomier?” The ship was already a close space for his bulk, and if he was going to get Scarlet how he wanted her…

“Why?” Scarlet asked again. “I have plenty of room here to suck you off.”

Wolf’s erection surged, even though his mind protested. Yesterday had been his first experience with _that_, and Scarlet had made him feel so good he was convinced it had nearly killed him. He needed to be making _her_ feel that giddy, that desperate for release. Scarlet plied open the button of his pants and was already guiding the zipper down…

Wolf threw his arms around her, one hand cupping the back of her head so she wouldn’t bang it, and he levered forwards, pressing Scarlet back against her own door. In that stunned moment, Wolf got his lips back on hers, his tongue into her open mouth, while he tugged at her own pants. The position he had to take was as awkward as he’d expected, but he was in it now, and he wasn’t stopping to fly home. The console between their seats dug into his ribs and he totally ignored it for the sensation of his finger penetrating her welcome warmth.

Scarlet moaned; Wolf took the separation of their lips as an opportunity to pay some compliments to her pale throat. He felt her gulp while he worked her over, eliciting the delicious sounds he loved to hear from her. By the time he inserted his second finger, Scarlet was clutching at his arm, wordlessly telling him not to stop. Wolf was so far gone for her. If she’d let him, he would give her this pleasure all day long, stretch it into weeks, months.

“When I flew toward the trees,” he ventured, “what did you think?”

Scarlet fought to fill her lungs enough to talk. “That you were about to do something crazy.”

Wolf kissed the corner of her jaw, near her ear. “Seems that you liked my crazy idea.”

Scarlet nodded. “_Wolf_,” she groaned as he made a long, slow drag against her walls. “You were so sure. That you’d pull out of it. You were focused. Oh - it was hot.” She bit her lip; Wolf could feel the tremors approaching. “I like it when you’re focused on me like that.”

“I’m always focused on you,” Wolf promised, speeding up his hand to give her what she wanted. He angled his wrist forward to meet her clit more intently, and Scarlet fell. Wolf had never seen any piece of art as exquisite as Scarlet in orgasm. He stared in wonder, trying to sear the moment onto his retinas, but it was surpassed when she opened her dazzling eyes.

“I was supposed to be making _you_ come,” Scarlet recalled, putting gentle pressure on Wolf’s arm to pull out of her.

He went reluctantly, resigning himself to the loss of contact. “But I love getting you off,” he countered. His fingers were covered in her, and he raised them to his mouth, happily anticipating her taste, but Scarlet grasped his wrist, a steely look in her eye.

Wolf raised his eyebrows, curious. “Back seat,” she ordered.

He wasn’t going to be told twice. Wolf slid out of the ship, reentering through the door just behind the pilot’s. Scarlet had to take a second to wriggle back into her pants before she joined him on the other side, her expression predatory as she advanced into Wolf’s personal space. Back here, the seat was one long bench, uninterrupted by anything but seatbelt buckles.

Wolf’s pants were still unzipped, and Scarlet made quick work of yanking them down enough to access his cock, rigid from all he had done to her. Her eyes bored into his, pinning Wolf to the spot in that unwavering gaze, and she guided his sticky hand to his own erection.

“Get yourself ready,” she instructed in a soft voice that brooked no argument.

Wolf’s brain had gone cloudy, and all he could do was what she asked, rubbing himself with Scarlet’s fluid. The pressure made his dick cry out for more, but Wolf didn’t want to move too fast or too hard. Scarlet was dragging his legs into the position she wanted them, his right splayed straight out along the seat, his left bent out enough to fit Scarlet’s kneeling body between it and the seat. She pushed his hand away, leaving him rock hard and forlorn, but he didn’t have to wait long; she kissed him once, said, “Thank you,” and bent over him.

Scarlet’s mouth on him was a wildfire of blissful pleasure; Wolf had to hook one hand around the headrest of the pilot’s seat so he wouldn’t - what? Punch a hole through the window? He felt capable of it, all senses ratcheted up to the highest sensitivity. His other hand clapped over his mouth in anticipation of the obscene sounds he could feel forming themselves in his throat.

Scarlet only got his length into her mouth once before she rose off of him again, pulling his hand from his mouth so she could kiss him. Her tongue plunged between his lips, even scraping along his teeth, and the taste of her essence, collected _from his dick_, exploded in his mouth. Wolf groaned, and then she was gone again, kneeling once more.

“Let me hear you,” she urged, taking his loose hand in hers, “please.”

She went to work on him again, his nerves fizzing with every sweep of her lips along him. It was overwhelming, the heat of her mouth, the sharp contrast of air on his wet skin when she pulled up. “Your _mouth_,” Wolf was babbling, “your mouth is _amazing_. Oh, Scarlet…”

On her next stroke up, Scarlet’s tongue trailed out of her lips, licking along the underside of his shaft, and Wolf swore. He was so close; he could feel himself tightening, and Scarlet was still going. “Scar…” He couldn’t even get her whole name out.

Scarlet hummed to show she was listening, but the vibration around his cock only made it worse. “I’m almost…” he tried again. She gave their entwined hands a gentle tug to get him to look her in the eyes, but he feared that as well. Actually watching his dick slip through her lips nearly made him lose control the first time, and this time he was so close he could practically taste it. Scarlet tugged again, and Wolf knew he had no choice. He looked down at her, mustering all his self-control, only to see her nod. “Scarlet,” he tried weakly to warn again, but all she did was to let go of his hand and press hers into his hip, bracing him.

Her tongue swirled around the head of his cock, and Wolf came into her mouth. He swore his vision whited out for interminable seconds, and his entire body quaked as if to aid his cock in emptying itself. He had no idea what sounds his mouth might be making, but whatever they were, they were out of his control.

When he was finished and lay slumped back against the door, he registered Scarlet’s movements again, and he saw she was wiping his come away, pale against her lips. The sight sent a jolt of possessiveness through him; he groaned and reached for her, gathering her to his limp body. Scarlet curled her free arm around him, laid a kiss on his shoulder.

“We may have to find someone else who can teach you to fly,” Scarlet reflected.

“If you’re not teaching me, I don’t see the point,” Wolf rebutted.

“Fine, then you’re going to have to tie me down every time so I don’t maul you.”

“What! That’s the whole idea.” Wolf knew he was giddy, but how could he not be, with the sun in the sky and Scarlet next to him?

She laughed, her energy a little muted now in the post-coital atmosphere. “We should get home.”

“You flying, or me?” Wolf grudgingly released his hold on her so they could get up.

Scarlet raised an eyebrow. “If you’re flying, we’ll never make it. In the interests of curbing any death-defying exploits, it has to be _my_ butt in the pilot’s seat.”

“There’s nothing saying your butt can’t also be in the seat if I’m flying. I’m excellent at sharing.”

“You’re unbelievable,” Scarlet groaned, swatting at him as he laughed. A buzz from the cupholder in the front seat announced a message for Scarlet, and she reached over to pick it up. “See? In the time we’ve been debating, I forgot I’m going to be late to meet Émilie.” Her tone was still teasing, but she extricated herself from the back seat and made for the pilot’s door.

Wolf buttoned his pants up and buckled himself in where he was. He didn’t think his legs would be able to carry him around the ship anyway. The vehicle rumbled to life, and Scarlet eased the nose skyward. Wolf watched the scenery pass, content to let the flight ease his mind and heart back to a normal resting state. What a marvel his life had become.


End file.
